There are still five American hostages being held by Hamas. And though our leaders seem to have forgotten them, the American people have not.
Hamas murdered 1,200 people in Israel in the October 7, 2023, terror attack, and took more than 250 hostages. While some hostages have been freed, there are still roughly 130 hostages still being held by Hamas — not all of whom are still alive.
Five of them are U.S. citizens.
The five American hostages who are still in Hamas’ captivity are; Keith Siegel, 65, Sagui Dekel-Chen, 35, Omer Neutra, 22, Edan Alexander, 20, and Hersh Goldberg-Polin, 23.
Here is a brief description of each.
Hersh Goldberg-Polin
The last time Goldberg-Polin’s parents saw him, was on October 6, the night before Hamas’ attack on Israel, right before he left to go camping with a friend, Aner Shapira.
His mother, Rachel Goldberg, last heard from her son the next morning, receiving two texts from him. In one, he told his parents that he loved them. The other text message said: “I’m sorry.”
The family later found out that Goldberg-Polin and Shapira, had attended the Supernova music festival, where 364 concertgoers were brutally murdered by Hamas terrorists.
Goldberg-Polin and Shapira were able to find a roadside rocket shelter.
As they were hiding in the shelter, Hamas terrorists threw grenades into it, resulting in Goldberg-Polin’s left arm being blown off from the elbow down. He then tied a tourniquet around his own arm.
Shapira, who was later buried at Mount Herzl Cemetery in Jerusalem, threw grenades back out of the shelter, according to eyewitnesses. After some point, Hamas terrorists informed the people in the shelter to come with them and Goldberg-Polin was taken into a pickup truck with other hostages.
Keith Siegel
Keith Siegel and his wife Aviva Siegel, 62, were taken hostage by Palestinian civilians from their home in the kibbutz of Kfar Aza. After being driven to Gaza in their own vehicle, the couple was then sold to Hamas terrorists.
Aviva Siegel was later released during a truce in November 2023 and has since spoken out about her time in captivity.
During an interview with CBC News in April, Aviva Siegel explained that the couple had been “moved 13 times” and had encountered “lots of terrorists,” describing each as being “worse than the other.”
Keith Siegel had moved to Israel in 1980, years after his brother Lee Siegel had done so, and he met his wife, Aviva, on the kibbutz where Lee and Keith’s sister-in-law had lived. The couple later moved to the Kfar Aza kibbutz and raised four children.
One of their children, Shir Siegel, had tried to call both of her parents on Saturday, only to be informed that her parents were unable to talk.
Sagui Dekel-Chen
The son of Connecticut-born Jonathan Dekel-Chen, Sagui Dekel-Chen lived on the Nir Oz kibbutz with his wife, Avital, and their children. Sagui’s parents also live on the same kibbutz.
In an interview with the Times of Israel, Sagui’s father explained that his son and others had sounded the alarm in their kibbutz after seeing “heavily armed and precisely organized” Hamas terrorists going through their community.
After checking on his wife and children, Sagui went outside with others from the kibbutz security team and fought against Hamas terrorists for hours.
“My daughter-in-law and the kids are now traumatized,” Dekel-Chen told the outlet. “Avital heard her husband struggling in hand-to-hand combat.”
In April, relatives and friends of the 36 people from Kibbutz Nir Or held a Passover seder with empty chairs featuring photos of each of the hostages.
Sagui’s mom, Neomit Dekel-Chen, was also taken hostage. She was reportedly able to escape after Israel Defense Forces (IDF) soldiers in a helicopter shot at Hamas terrorists and the driver of an electric cart heading to Gaza with the hostages.
Edan Alexander
Edan Alexander was born in Tel Aviv, Israel, and grew up in Tenafly, New Jersey. After graduating from high school, he went on to join the Golani Brigade’s 51st Battalion.
At the time of Hamas’ attack, he had been stationed near the Gaza Strip, and a little after 6:30 a.m., he had informed his mom, Yael Alexander that he was safe.
However, around 7:00 a.m., she was not able to reach her son and a week later the family discovered Edan was among those taken hostage by Hamas.
Yael explained to NBC News in an interview that when she was told her son was among the hostages, she knew they had “hope now.”
“When they told me that, I was like, breathing for a second, because I knew, OK, so we have a hope now,” she said.
Omer Neutra
At the time of Hamas’ attack on Oct. 7, Omer Neutra had been serving as a tank commander near Gaza.
After graduating from high school in New York City, Omer went to Israel and enlisted in the Israel Defense Forces.
He went there for the right reasons, you know, he felt that he wanted to protect, and he’s not the kind of guy that was looking for a war,” Omer’s mom, Orna Neutra explained.
The last time Omer’s parents heard from him was the day before Hamas’ attack.
Both Omer Neutra and Edan Alexander were stationed near the Gaza border and reportedly knew each other.
“We didn’t know the family beforehand, but after the fact, we’ve been told that our boys knew each other and that they shared a lot, being that they had a similar background,” Omer’s mom said.
(Material for these biographies was sourced from the Times of Israel, the Washington Examiner, and other reports.)
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