Former Hamas hostages Aviva and Keith Siegel, who were abducted from Kibbutz Kfar Aza on October 7, testified before the United Nations about the horrors of captivity, saying that they are not looking for "mercy," rather, they want to make sure that the terrorists who kidnapped and tortured them will never be able to again. It was very difficult emotionally for them to read their testimony.
The two spoke at a session of the UN Committee against Torture (UNCAT) in Geneva, as part of an Israeli delegation led by Director‑General of the Justice Ministry, Itamar Donenfeld.
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Aviva and Keith Siegel appear before the United Nations Committee Against Torture
(Photo: Courtesy)
Keith Siegel described in detail the moment of abduction: “On October 7,2023 at 6:29 in the morning, Aviva and I were awakened by the sound of the well-known siren blaring ahead of a rocket attack. We immediately went into the safe room to protect ourselves from the rockets. ... For four hours we stayed in our safe room, hearing gunfire, rockets, then we heard the terrorists in our home. They shot into the room the room we were hiding in, then they brutally dragged us out — Aviva and I in our pajamas, surrounded by about 15 armed terrorists. They tore Aviva's meniscus in her knee and broke my ribs. On they way to the car they shot at us and I was injured in my wrist. ... They pushed us into a car, a terrorist sitting in the back sear with a long knife in front our faces. ... within minutes we crossed the border" into Gaza.
Excerpt of Aviva and Keith Siegel's statements at the UN Committee Against Torture
He later described how he was brought into a room where a female captive was tortured in his presence.
“A terrorist came to me and said that I must convince this woman hostage to confess that she was an IDF officer. They brought me into a room I saw this woman lying on her back, on the floor her on the floor, with her hands and legs tied together, her mouth covered with tape. Two terrorists were beating her with a rod, as I was telling her to confess, knowing that she had nothing to confess to, a third terrorist stood by her head, was holding a sharp rod, and pushed that sharp rod to her forehead, applying pressure; one of the terrorists held a pistol to her head and told her that if she does not confess, he will kill her. In retrospect, I feel like the terrorist had complete control over me... the memories of the situation I was in haunt me to this day," he said.
Keith Siegal's testimony
Keith Siegel told the panel that he and Aviva were held together for 50 days, until her release. Afterwards, he says he was held with other hostages and sometimes in total isolation. He was held completely alone for about six months. "I was moved 55 times; I was held in tunnels and schools, and residential homes with children and with wives of terrorists," he said. "I knew the worst could happen at any moment," he also said.
"A 60-year-old man, completely alone, constantly in fear, no prospect of the future and no knowledge of what happened to my loved ones at home," he said.
“Our captives compared my genitals to those of another hostage, threatened us with knives, leaving us to beg to go to the bathroom - we would wait until until we were absolutely about to explode so that we would not anger the terrorists. I was denied he most basic of human rights. I was starved. More than once young terrorists forced me to undress in front of them, and shaved my body,” he described.
“The entire time I was in Gaza I envisioned returning home and going to visit, reuniting with my family ... and going to visit my aging mother," he explained, and said that he first question he asked his wife on the helicopter taking him to an Israeli hospital was about the health of his mother. " My mother passed away two months before my release. She had died two months before my release. My mother did not get a chance to know that I was home, and I did not get a chance to say goodbye to her.”
Aviva Siegel, Keith’s wife, also testified before the committee. She described being in a tunnel under Gaza and witnessing a Hamas terrorist use a wire cutter to cut off the hand of a young boy from her community in order to remove his handcuffs. " I just wanted to scream, and I saw the terrorist smiling as he did it,” she said.
She added, “For 51 days, I was sure I was going to die all the time. I was threatened, I was starved, I didn't get enough water, lost 10 kg in 51 days. I used to hide food for Keith. I could see Keith; he was losing weight. But the terrorists were putting weight on. They were eating in front of us, and chewing all the time, while they didn't give us anything to eat."
According to Aviva: “One of the days, one of the girls went to the bathroom, and when she came back she was shaking. I knew I wasn't allowed to hug her ... but I got up and gave her a hug. I felt I had to, she's young. After a while she told us that a Hamas terrorist had touched her whole body and did whatever he wanted," and threatened to kill her if she told anyone.
Aviva Siegal's testimony
She recounted another case of a young girl forced to shower with a terrorist and then perform oral sex on him. Additionally, she described a 16‑year‑old girl who was forced to shower in front of a terrorist. “She’s 16 years old,” Aviva said with a broken voice, “she has never ever shown anyone her body. A Hamas terrorist just stood there, stared at her and smiled.”
She added: "My worst times as a human being was to see how they tortured my husband Keith and what they did to the girls, and I wasn't even allowed to hug, I wasn't allowed to help, I wasn't allowed to cry, I wasn't allowed to move. But I want to say that I tried so badly to be a person.... I used to give them love through my eyes."
Aviva noted: We used to lie from 5 p.m. to 9 a.m. and were not allowed to move. My body was sore. I just wanted to stretch myself. I wanted to sit. I wanted to scream, ‘just let me sit for five minutes’. I wasn't allowed to. I was threatened that I would be killed. One of the nights I put my foot out of the blanket, like anybody in the world would do. The Hamas terrorist came and started screaming at me that I am not allowed to do that. It sounds like something very small, but that was the amount of control they had over us all the time. For most of the time in Gaza, I had diarrhoea because they gave us dirty water to drink.... I’m 62 years old and I had to ask for permission to go to the bathroom.”
Horrific descriptions: 'They played soccer with heads of humans'
“I come from a community that 64 people were murdered. 40 families lost at least one member of the family. People on October 7th died slowly, while talking to their families telling how much they loved them—and then disappeared out of life. When I came back I heard so many stories—and they're true,” Aviva added. “They were videoed by Hamas because they were proud of themselves. They played soccer with heads of humans. They cut off breasts off girls and played. One boys in my community was buried without a head—they found the head in Gaza with ice creams.”
Aviva recalled returning with an 84-year-old female hostage named Alma, who she massaged for four hours to keep her alive after she had lost half her body weight due to subsisting on two dates a day. Alma's body temperature was 82.4 F upon her return. The doctor said if Aviva had not massaged her she would not have survived.
During the hearing, Donenfeld presented to the committee Israel’s commitment to the Convention against Torture, called on committee members to stick to facts and law, and asked them to avoid amplifying antisemitic propaganda.
“The testimonies we heard here today are not only personal stories, they are a moral and legal indictment of the world’s silence," he said. "The State of Israel is fully committed to the principles of the Convention against Torture and to ensuring human dignity. This commitment cannot be one‑sided. The silence of the international community in the face of torture, kidnappings and abuse is a violation of the very spirit of the Convention. The Convention must not remain merely a document— it must be a moral compass requiring action.”
The Israeli delegation includes senior representatives from the Ministries of Justice, Foreign Affairs, National Security, Israel Police, the Prison Service, the Population and Immigration Authority, as well as from the Military Prosecution. According to the Justice Ministry, the delegation’s appearance was part of Israel’s obligations under the international Convention against Torture and the submission of its sixth periodic report on implementation of the Convention in Israel, which was submitted to the committee in 2020.