Aviva Siegel, the wife of hostage survivor Keith Siegel, spoke on Monday evening at a rally in Hostages Square in Tel Aviv, describing the suffering she and her husband endured while held captive in Gaza.

Aviva Siegel was freed in the first hostage release deal in November of 2023. Keith Siegel was freed earlier this month after 484 in Hamas captivity.

In her moving speech, Siegel called for the return of all the hostages without delay. "I still haven't been able to breathe for 500 days. I know what it's like to be in Gaza, I also know what it's like to worry about someone being in Gaza, the terrible suffering there is unbearable."

Siegel described the impossible reality the hostages are experiencing: "When I was kidnapped, I didn't allow myself to feel for a moment; the emotion was so painful that I tried to focus on my thoughts to avoid feeling anything. For 500 days, the hostages haven’t known what will happen tomorrow, whether they will live or die, if they will be beaten, starved again, or if they've been completely forgotten there... We must bring them back from hell now."

She further described the torture her husband endured in captivity: "Out of the 484 days he was in Gaza, he was alone for half a year, lying on a mattress on the floor in a very small room, hungry, with the only food he got being moldy pitas or burnt ones, unfit for human consumption. On one of the days, the terrorist who was with him came over, kicked him in the ribs with full force, spat on him, and called him 'you dog,' for no reason, just because he wanted to. One day, the terrorist pointed a gun at him and said, 'Now I'm going to shoot and kill you.'"

Siegel recounted how she reacted when she heard about her husband's moments of terror. "I asked Keith, 'What did you do for him to do that to you?' Keith told me... 'Nothing.' The terrorists turned Keith into nothing. Every human need was denied him, sometimes even going to the bathroom."

"I want to thank my nation today; you helped me get through all those dark days since I returned from Gaza. To the families who lost their loved ones, I am saddened with you, I embrace you, I wish this hadn't happened. To all the families who still have a family member in Gaza, I so much want you to be released from the hell you are in."

She concluded her speech with a call, "I am Aviva Siegel, and I will only truly start breathing when everyone returns, the living for rehabilitation, the dead for burial. Everyone. In the current deal. Continuously. Without stopping, without dragging feet, and without giving up on anyone. Because giving up on them is giving up on us. Until the last hostage returns!"