American Israeli Keith Siegel is among the hostages set to be released Saturday, Hamas said in a statement Friday, as part of the fourth hostage-prisoner exchange with Israel.
Yarden Bibas and Ofer Kalderon will also be released, according to Hamas' statement.
Siegel, 65, was last seen in a video released by Hamas in April, where he spoke directly to his family to say he was doing OK. Originally from Chapel Hall, North Carolina, Seigel was taken from kibbutz Kfar Aza in southern Israel during Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023 attack that saw some 250 people kidnapped and about 1200 killed.
Bibas was taken hostage along with his wife Shiri and their two children, Kfir, who was 9 months old at the time, and would have turned 2 this month, and their now 5-year old son, Ariel.
During a one-week ceasefire in November 2023 when 105 hostages were released, the Bibas children did not emerge out of Gaza, unlike other child hostages.
Hamas said during that ceasefire that Shiri Bibas and the two children were killed in an Israeli airstrike, but the Israeli military said the claims could not be confirmed. In Feb. 2024, the Israel Defense Forces acknowledged its fears for the family.
"Based on the information available to us, we are very concerned and worried about the condition and well-being of Shiri and the children,” Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, the Israel Defense Forces' chief spokesperson, said in a news conference.
Ofer Kalderon, now 54, was kidnapped with 17-year-old daughter Sahar and 12-year-old son Erez.
Both children were released in November 2023.
"To get him back has been the one thing that has been the missing piece of their puzzle of recovery," Kalderon's cousin, Jason Greenberg told NBC Boston.
Soon after Siegel's video, his two daughters Ilan and Shir shared a picture of them holding hands with their mother, Aviva Siegel who was also taken hostage on Oct. 7 but released a month later.“Keith and I nearly died in the tunnel because there was no oxygen, and I’ve been talking about it over and over and over — hard stories. But I want to just tell everybody we’re not going to stop,” she told NBC News' Lester Holt in an interview alongside others whose loved ones were also taken.
Apart from Siegel, two more Americans are believed to be still alive in Gaza: Sagui Dekel-Chen, 36 and Edan Alexander, 20.
Bodies of four Americans, Itay Chen, 19, Omer Neutra, 21, and the married couple Judith Weinstein, 70, and Gadi Haggai, 73, who were most likely killed on Oct. 7 2023, are still being held in Gaza.
Israel is expected to release another group of Palestinian prisoners in exchange for the three hostages Saturday.
This story first appeared on chof360.com. More from NBC News:
