A former hostage fought for her own life in Gaza. A year on, she fights for her husband's freedom

TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — As a hostage in Gaza, Aviva Siegel found herself begging for food and water. Since her release, she has found herself begging for her husband to be set free from his own ongoing captivity.

Siegel has come to embody the disaster that befell Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. Armed Hamas militants snatched her from her home and thrust her into Gaza’s web of tunnels. Released during a brief cease-fire in November, she returned to find her community destroyed and became one of tens of thousands of Israelis displaced by conflict. She has emerged as a prominent voice in the struggle to free the remaining hostages, fighting tirelessly for her husband’s release.

But as her ordeal reaches the one-year mark, Israel’s attention is focused not on the plight of the hostages and their families, but on fighting Hezbollah in Lebanon. It's the latest diversion to chip away at Siegel's hope that she may reunite with her husband of 43 years anytime soon.

“The hostages, they are being left to die. To die slowly. How can I handle that? I just don’t know how to handle it anymore,” she said, sitting beside a poster of her husband, Keith, a 65-year-old American Israeli originally from Chapel Hill, North Carolina.