More than four months since his release from Gaza, former hostage Keith Siegel bears the mental scars of 484 days of captivity in destroyed buildings and tunnels in the hands of Palestinian militant group Hamas.

The 66-year-old Israeli-American and his wife Aviva were among 251 hostages seized from residential communities along the Gaza border, army bases and a music festival on October 7, 2023.

In a recent interview with AFP, Siegel told of physical and sexual abuse that he had experienced and witnessed in captivity, and of the extreme stress of not knowing if he would ever see his family again.

In one incident, he recalled how his captor, out of the blue, pulled out a gun and said: "I'm going to kill you now."

"Then he said, 'now you're dead' and laughed," added Siegel, wearing a t-shirt with the words "Bring them home now", a call to free the remaining 52 hostages still in Gaza after more than 20 months.

One of the locations where Siegel was held was so far underground that he was "gasping for breath", he recalled.

"It was the most horrendous, or one of the most horrendous, situations that I was in."

He........

© Al Monitor