Hanna Siegel, niece of American hostage Keith Siegel, appeared on CBS’ “Face the Nation” on Sunday morning and talked about the “surreal” feeling of seeing a recently released video purporting to show her uncle and talked about the possibility of a deal that would free him and other people thought to still be held by Hamas in Gaza.
“We’ve always believed that he was alive. We have to believe he’s alive — and his wife, my aunt, who was held for 52 days, [was] released in the deal that took place in November, she was with him,” Siegel said. “When she came out, she told us he was alive, but this is the first time that we’re seeing him, hearing him. It’s surreal.”
When asked about a potential hostage deal and temporary cease-fire between Israel and Hamas, Siegel said that she does think an agreement “can be reached” and pointed to an earlier deal that secured the release of her aunt and others during a brief pause in the war late last year.
Siegel also said that she believes the new release of purported hostage videos shows that Hamas is signaling they are ready to make a deal.
But she said that she is concerned that it might not be in Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s “political interest to close a deal,” though Netanyahu has said his goal is freeing the captives in Gaza as well as dismantling Hamas.
Siegel said that the Biden administration should “think about what they can do directly to bring our American citizens home.”
She also said she has felt the “commitment from the Biden administration to get him back,” referring to her uncle.
She became emotional talking about how her family missed her uncle during their Passover celebration and had a picture of him to pay tribute.
“I think there’s so much swirling in the political realm that it’s easy to forget that these are human beings. Keith is a grandfather, he’s a husband, he’s a brother, he’s an uncle,” she said.
She was asked whether her family is worried if a potential Israeli invasion of the Gaza city of Rafah, to further target Hamas fighters, could threaten her uncle’s safety. She responded that she and her family are “very concerned.”
-ABC News’ Michelle Stoddart
