In a powerful and emotional reunion, former hostages Keith and Aviva Siegel reconnected last week with Israeli soldiers Agam Berger and Liri Albag — the two young women who helped them endure 51 harrowing days in Hamas captivity. The moment, featured on 60 Minutes, captured a bond forged through shared suffering and unwavering support.

The Siegels’ ordeal began on October 7, 2023, when Hamas militants stormed Kibbutz Kfar Aza. Keith and Aviva, grandparents in their 60s, barricaded themselves in a safe room, only to be violently dragged out. Aviva was shoved through a window, tearing her meniscus; Keith was beaten, his ribs broken, and he was shot in the hand. The couple was abducted and driven into Gaza, where they were forced into underground tunnels.

“We were put into this very small… cramped niche,” Keith recalled in his interview with 60 Minutes correspondent Lesley Stahl. “You couldn’t stand up… No room to walk around.”

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The couple was held together for nearly two months, shuffled between hideouts, ignored by guards, and left to suffer from injury and illness. During that time, they were imprisoned with Berger and Albag, two young IDF soldiers whose presence became a source of strength.

“A very strong bond,” Keith said when asked about the connection between fellow hostages. “Being able to look after each other… physically or mentally, emotionally, psychologically, [and] being supportive.”

Aviva recalled the comfort of simply holding hands in the darkness, whispering stories to one another. Keith became the group’s morale booster, often telling jokes to lift spirits — until he fell into a deep depression. For three days, he grew quiet and distant, and it was Berger and Albag who pulled him back.

“They just said that they worried about him and that he must come back to himself, because he used to make them laugh,” Aviva said.

Berger described a moment during heavy bombing when she broke down in tears. Keith held her hand and comforted her. “I never cried like that when we were together until that day,” she said.

Now free, the hostages share a bond they say will never be broken. In Hebrew, Berger told the Siegels: “We’re never going to separate. Keith and Aviva — you’re like parents to me.”

Aviva was released during the brief November ceasefire, but Keith remained in Hamas captivity for over a year. During that time, he witnessed the sexual abuse of fellow hostages and endured psychological torture. Even now, he says, “I’m still there,” mentally stuck in Gaza, haunted by those left behind.

Standing outside the ruins of his home, Keith made an impassioned plea: “I urge President Trump, I urge the administration, I urge the Israeli government, and I urge the mediating countries… to get back to negotiations and to get the hostages back. Every day that this goes on is just more and more suffering… it needs to be done now.”