American Keith Siegel among hostages set for release in next Israel-Hamas exchange under ceasefire

CBS News

31-01-2025

The group representing the families of Israeli hostages confirmed Friday the names of three more captives whom Hamas is expected to hand over on Saturday, and there's a dual U.S.-Israeli national among them. Keith Seigel, 65, originally from North Carolina, moved to Israel four decades ago and was among those seized during Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023 terrorist attack.
Hamas had earlier provided three names and Israeli officials confirmed receipt of the list, but it was the Hostages and Missing Families Forum that confirmed the identities, saying it welcomed "the joyous news regarding the expected release of Keith Siegel," along with Israeli nationals Yarden Bibas and Ofer Calderon.
Seigel's wife Aviva Seigel was also taken during the attack, which saw militants kill some 1,200 people and take 251 others hostage, but she was released under a brief November 2023 ceasefire and prisoner swap agreement between Israel and Hamas.
Speaking to CBS News about a year after her release, Seigel said there were moments as Hamas militants forced her and her husband through tunnels under the Gaza Strip that they felt "sure we were going to die."
Yarden Bibas, 35, is the husband of Shiri Bibas, who was taken from their kibbutz with her two young children Ariel and Kfir during the terrorist attack. Hamas claimed just weeks after the attack that Shiri and her two children were killed in an Israeli bombing in Gaza.
In a TV interview about half a year later, then-Israeli government minister Benny Gantz indicated that officials knew what had happened to the Bibas family, but said it could not provide details. The fact that, under the terms of the ceasefire deal, Hamas has released women and children before male hostages, suggested the rest of Yarden Bibas' family was indeed dead.
Ofer Calderon, 54, was among five members of his family seized by Hamas militants from their kibbutz near the Gaza border on Oct. 7, 2023. His two children were released during the ceasefire in November of that year, but two of his cousins were killed.
Speaking to CBS Boston only two weeks ago, Calderon's cousin Jason Greenberg said he still didn't know whether Ofer was dead or alive.
"It's hard to imagine anybody being able to endure that long and even come back the same person," Greenberg said. "If he comes back alive, that's a miracle."
3rd hostage-prisoner exchange completed, but not smoothly
Eight hostages held by Hamas and its allies in Gaza were freed Thursday in exchange for the release of 110 Palestinian prisoners, in a third swap facilitated by the fragile ceasefire agreement that took effect on January 19.
The exchange began smoothly with the handover of female Israeli soldier Agam Berger, 20. She was handed over in a relatively orderly fashion amid the ruins of the Jabalia Refugee Camp in northern Gaza. But the process devolved into chaos when large crowds surrounded Israelis Arbel Yehoud and Gadi Moses as they were transferred by militants to Red Cross personnel in southern Gaza about an hour later.
The scenes angered Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who delayed the release of the Palestinian prisoners for a few hours until, his office said, mediators of the ceasefire agreement offered guarantees that precautions would be taken to ensure the safety of all further hostages released under the deal.
President Trump's Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff ended a visit and left Israel Thursday after the three hostages were released. He spent much of the day visiting Gaza, where he went with members of the Israel Defense Forces, "to inspect the implementation [of the ceasefire], because it is so important," he told Axios.
"How this happens will influence our ability to get to phase-two of the deal," Witkoff said.
Americans still held in Gaza
Seven American citizens, including Seigel, are among the remaining 82 hostages being held in Gaza, both dead and alive.
Sagui Dekel-Chen, 35, who grew up in Bloomfield, Connecticut, and Edan Alexander, 19, from Tenafly, New Jersey, are thought to be alive, while four other Americans are thought to have been killed in captivity.
Israel's 15-month, blistering military offensive in Gaza in response to Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023 terrorist attack has killed more than 46,000 people in the enclave, according to the Hamas-run ministry of health. Entire neighborhoods have been leveled, and virtually all of the territory's more than 2 million inhabitants have been displaced from their homes, many of them multiple times.