WASHINGTON–First lady Melania Trump met with Keith and Aviva Siegel, who were taken hostage by Hamas on October 7, 2023, at the White House on Wednesday.
The Siegels were taken from their home in Kibbutz Kfar Aza, and Aviva was held captive for 51 days, while Keith was held captive for 484 days. Keith was released from captivity after a meeting between the first lady and Aviva, which helped set his release in motion. Wednesday’s meeting comes after Hamas returned the last deceased hostage, Sergeant First Class (SFC) Ran Gvili, last month.
“I want to start by saying thank you to the first lady, Melania Trump, and to President Trump. I want to thank you for being a caring, compassionate person, for supporting and helping Aviva during those difficult days, and you helped her enormously, in many ways,” Keith emotionally told the first lady.
“It’s an honor, it’s a privilege, and I’m eternally grateful, and I’m very grateful to have the opportunity to say that to you… I’m eternally grateful to you and President Trump for bringing me home and for bringing all the hostages back to their families,” he added.
Keith also thanked the first lady for featuring Aviva in the Melania documentary.
Aviva thanked the first lady for their meeting before Keith’s release.
“When we met, before Keith came home, you gave me so much hope, and I could feel your heart with me, and I knew how important it was for you to go back home and talk to President Trump and share your feelings,” she said before thanking the first lady for including her in Melania.
“Bringing hostages home was the most important thing that I could think about in this world, and now it’s all over the world, the bad things that Hamas did to my husband, but I’m lucky,” she added.
The first lady took a few questions at the end of the meeting, with one reporter absurdly suggesting that the meeting was a promotion of the first lady’s documentary film Melania.
“Why do you feel it is appropriate to use an official White House event to promote your documentary?” the reporter asked the first lady.
“This is not promotion,” she responded matter-of-factly. “We are here celebrating the release of the hostages of Aviva and Keith.”
The Siegels’ daughter, Ilan, spoke with Breitbart News in an exclusive interview in December 2024, while her father was still held captive. She said she felt a “shift” at the time as then-President-elect Trump prepared to return to office, though she was very thankful for the Biden administration’s support, advocacy, and negotiation efforts.
“We do feel a kind of a shift since Trump has been elected because we can hear different statements from him and from, you know, leaders around the world that say that this is the time and that it could happen. And I am so thankful for Trump for making those statements out loud and saying out loud that the hostages have to come home,” she said.
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