Hamas announced that an Israeli-American citizen will be released this weekend. Keith Siegel, 65, is the first of the American citizens taken hostage on October 7, 2023, to be released.
Siegel will be released alongside French-Israel citizen Ofer Calderon and the father of the two youngest hostages, Yarden Bibas.
The Hostages Families Forum said in a statement that it “welcomes the joyous news regarding the expected release of Keith Siegel, Yardan Bibas, and Ofer Kalderon after 484 days in Hamas captivity.”
“We have both the sacred duty and moral right to bring all our brothers and sisters home,” the group said. “We will not give up or stop at any stage until all hostages return home, down to the last one – the living for rehabilitation and the deceased for proper burial.”
Seven Americans are still being held hostage. Only two are believed to be alive.
Israel is expected to release 90 Palestinians in Saturday’s exchange. Nine of the prisoners were serving life sentences.
The Trump administration’s Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, left Israel on Thursday following the release of eight hostages.
Witkoff told Axios that there is “almost nothing left of Gaza.”
“People are moving north to get back to their homes and see what happened and turn around and leave … there is no water and no electricity. It is stunning just how much damage occurred there,” he said, adding, “This is why I went to Gaza — to inspect the implementation because it is so important. How this happens will influence our ability to get to phase two of the deal.”
He noted that it may take between ten and fifteen years to rebuild Gaza.
