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First American hostage to be released from Gaza, Hamas says

American-Israeli Keith Siegel is set to be released on Saturday as part of Israel and Hamas’ ceasefire deal. He is the first of the American citizens taken on Oct. 7, 2023 to be released by the terror organization as part of this ceasefire deal.

Siegel and his wife, Aviva, were taken captive during Hamas’ brutal surprise attacks on Oct. 7, 2023. In November 2023, Aviva was released from Hamas captivity as part of a ceasefire and hostage deal early in the war.

This is a developing story and will be updated.

Rachel Wolf is a breaking news writer for Fox News Digital and FOX Business.

January 31, 2025
Former Hamas hostage details horrors of captivity, credits kidnapped IDF soldier with saving her life

Former Hamas hostage Amit Soussana is sharing more details about her time in captivity, and she says there was another hostage who was instrumental in her survival. Liri Albag, one of the IDF soldiers who was kidnapped on Oct. 7, “saved” Soussana.

Speaking on Israeli TV, Soussana recalled her captors tying her up and beating her, demanding that she admit to being in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). Soussana says her hands and feet were bound, and she was beaten with a stick before one of the captors pointed a gun at her and said, “You have 40 minutes to tell us the truth, or else I kill you.”

Amit Soussana was released after 55 days of hell in a hostage deal. (Getty Images)

ISRAELI WOMAN BRAVELY DESCRIBES HORROR AS HAMAS HOSTAGE: ‘THEY WERE TAKING PLEASURE IN HURTING ME’

Fellow hostage Albag was apparently able to convince their captors that Soussana was not in fact in the military. Soussana who calls Albag “something special, a force,” believes this act saved her life.

“I told her when she came back: ‘I don’t know if they would have killed me or not; as far as I’m concerned, you saved my life,” Soussana said in the interview.

Released Israeli hostage Liri Albag, a soldier who was kidnapped from her army base during Hamas’ deadly Oct. 7, 2023 attacks, embraces loved ones after being released, in an unknown location, in a handout photo obtained by Reuters on Jan. 25, 2025. (Israel Defense Forces/Handout via REUTERS)

Hamas terrorists kidnapped Soussana from her home in Kibbutz Kfar Aza during the brutal Oct. 7 attacks. She was forced to walk barefoot in pajamas from her burning house to the Gaza border, being beaten along the way. Soussana fought her kidnappers in what was called “the battle of my life,” trying to stall them in hopes that the IDF would rescue her before she was dragged into Gaza.

Soussana was released from Gaza in November 2023 after 55 days in captivity as part of Israel’s first hostage deal with Hamas.

UN FINALLY RECOGNIZES THAT ISRAELI WOMEN WERE RAPED, SEXUALLY ATTACKED BY HAMAS TERRORISTS

In March 2024, Soussana became the first Israeli woman to speak publicly about being sexually assaulted while in Hamas captivity. She recalled the horrifying incident in an interview with The New York Times. Soussana later testified before the UN Security Council in October 2024 about her experience.

Amit Soussana spoke before the UN on Wednesday, sharing her harrowing experience as a hostage. Hamas terrorists abducted her on Oct. 7, 2023. (UNTV)

During her captivity, Soussana was chained by her ankle, unable to move. “I had to ask for permission to use the bathroom,” she explained, detailing her experience. “In that house, I was sexually assaulted by the Hamas terrorist who had guarded me.”

She described the assault, saying, “He forced me to go to the shower and entered the room, pointed his gun at me. He was breathing heavily and had a monstrous beast-like face.” She recalled his intrusive questioning while he sat next to her in his underwear, lifting her shirt and touching her. “I knew exactly what he was planning to do, and yet I couldn’t do anything to prevent it. I was utterly helpless.”

Soussana said that after the assault she was not “allowed to cry or to be sad.” She recalled feeling isolated and being “forced to act nice to the person who had just sexually assaulted me.”

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Israel and Hamas have been engaged in a deadly war for over 15 months following the terror group’s devastating surprise attacks on Oct. 7, 2023. Hamas is expected to release Agam Berger, Arbel Yehoud and 80-year-old Gadi Moses on Jan. 30 as part of the current ceasefire deal with Israel.

Rachel Wolf is a breaking news writer for Fox News Digital and FOX Business.

January 29, 2025
Former Hamas hostage Naama Levy breaks silence in first message since her release

Naama Levy, one of the four female IDF soldiers released from Hamas captivity on Saturday, is speaking out for the first time.

“After 477 days, I’m finally home,” Levy wrote on Instagram. “I’m safe and protected, surrounded by family and friends, and I am feeling better by the day.”

In the post, Levy expressed her gratitude to “Israeli combat soldiers and the Israeli people,” saying she saw how they were fighting for her release. “Thank you all. I love you,” Levy wrote.

Released hostage Naama Levy sees her parents for the first time in 477 days after being violently kidnapped by Hamas terrorists on Oct. 7, 2023. (IDF Spokesperson’s Unit)

HAMAS RELEASES 4 FEMALE HOSTAGES AS PART OF ISRAEL CEASEFIRE DEAL

On Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terrorists kidnapped Levy alongside Liri Albag, Daniella Gilboa, Karina Ariev, and Agam Berger. All the girls, except Berger, were released as part of Israel and Hamas’ ceasefire deal.

Levy revealed that she was alone most of the time for the first 50 days of captivity. However, once she was reunited with the other soldiers taken from her base, they stuck together and “strengthened each other every day until our release and also after it.”

“We are waiting for Agami and the rest of the hostages to return so we can complete the recovery process.”

Berger, who Levy mentioned in the post, is expected to be released on Thursday along with Arbel Yehoud and an unnamed male hostage.

Left to right: Daniella Gilboa, Karina Ariev, Liri Albag, Naama Levy. (Handout/Bring Them Home Now)

ISRAEL, HAMAS REACH DEAL TO RELEASE HOSTAGES AND ALLOW PALESTINIANS TO RETURN TO GAZA STRIP

A video of Levy on the day she was kidnapped went viral. She was seen wearing a black shirt and blood-soaked gray sweatpants as an armed man pulls her from a Jeep. Her ankles slashed, Levy was clearly struggling to walk after her apparently violent abduction. Levy became a symbol for the plight of the female hostages and victims of Hamas’ surprise attacks.

A woman stands next to a poster with an image of Israeli soldier Naama Levy as supporters of hostages kidnapped during the deadly Oct. 7, 2023, attack stage a performance calling for her release in Tel Aviv, Israel, on Oct. 19, 2024. (REUTERS/Violeta Santos Moura)

In a November 2023 essay for The Free Press, Levy’s mother, Ayelet Levy Shachar, emphasized that though the video of her daughter’s kidnapping was seen around the world, it was “totally unrepresentative of the life she had led until October 7.”

“When she is released, I pray that the image of her abduction, and the experience of what that image represents, isn’t how she comes to see the world,” Shachar wrote at the time.

WHAT WAS IN THE BROWN BAGS HANDED TO ISRAELI HOSTAGES RELEASED BY HAMAS?

Upon Levy, Albag, Gilboa and Ariev’s release, the Hostages and Missing Families Forum Headquarters said that “their return today represents a moment of light in the darkness, a moment of hope and triumph of spirit, while serving as a painful reminder of the urgency to bring back the 90 hostages still in Gaza.”

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More than 15 months into the Israel-Hamas war, which started with the brutal surprise attacks on Oct. 7, 2023, dozens of hostages remain in Gaza.

Rachel Wolf is a breaking news writer for Fox News Digital and FOX Business.

January 28, 2025
FBI director nominee Kash Patel broke hostage rescue protocol: whistleblower

Senate Democrats have obtained a whistleblower report claiming that President Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the FBI, Kash Patel, violated protocol during a hostage rescue mission in October 2020.

The whistleblower letter, obtained by Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., claimed that Patel leaked news that two Americans and the remains of a third were being transferred to U.S. custody from Yemen, where they had been held hostage by Houthi rebels. The whistleblower claims Patel leaked news of the trade to the Wall Street Journal hours before the hostages were actually in U.S. custody, potentially endangering the deal.

The protocol of the multi-agency group in charge of the mission was to withhold information about hostage deals until the subjects were both in U.S. custody and their families had been notified, according to the whistleblower.

A transition official pushed back on the report in a statement to Fox News Digital on Tuesday, saying Patel has a “track record of success.”

“Mr. Patel was a public defender, decorated prosecutor, and accomplished national security official that kept Americans safe,” the official said. “He has a track record of success in every branch of government, from the court room to congressional hearing room to the situation room. There is no veracity to this anonymous source’s complaints about protocol.”

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FBI nominee Kash Patel allegedly violated protocol during a hostage exchange deal, according to a new whistleblower report obtained by Senate Democrats. (Reuters)

In the October 2020 case, the deal went forward without any issues, with the two Americans and the remains of the third being transferred to U.S. custody. In exchange, the U.S. arranged for the release of some 200 Houthi fighters being held prisoner in Saudi Arabia.

Alexander Gray, who served as Chief of Staff for the White House National Security Council under Trump’s first administration, also called the allegations “simply absurd.”

Robert C. Obrien, who served as National Security Advisor from 2019 to 2021, argued that the whistleblower was jeopardizing decades of bipartisan work on hostage deals by coming forward.

Senate Democrats delivered the whistleblower letter on Monday morning to Acting FBI Director Brian Driscoll, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Acting Treasury Secretary David Lebryk and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, CBS News reported.

The report comes just days before Patel is set to appear before the Senate Judiciary Committee for an extensive confirmation hearing.

TULSI GABBARD CHANGES TUNE ON CONTROVERSIAL INTELLIGENCE TOOL FOLLOWING GOP LOBBYING

The Senate’s “advice and consent” role allows the body to review the president’s appointments and provide oversight on key positions. The picks require a majority vote in the Senate with Republicans holding a 53-47 vote advantage over Democrats.

Sen. Dick Durbin obtained the whistleblower report relating to Patel. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)

Patel has called for radical changes at the FBI and was a fierce and vocal critic of the bureau’s work as it investigated ties between Russia and Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign.

He held numerous national security roles during the first Trump administration and was the chief investigator in the congressional probe into alleged Trump-Russia collusion, uncovering government surveillance abuse that led to the appointment of two special counsels: one who determined that there had been no such collusion and another who determined the entire premise of the FBI’s original investigation was bogus.

Several of President Donald Trump’s cabinet nominees face rough paths toward nomination. (Evan Vucci/AP)

Patel was an integral part of the creation of a memo released by then-Chair Devin Nunes in February 2018, which detailed the DOJ’s and FBI’s surveillance of former Trump campaign aide Carter Page under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.

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He’s been a loyal ally to Trump for years, finding common cause over their shared skepticism of government surveillance and the “deep state” — a catchall used by Trump to refer to unelected members of government bureaucracy.

Fox News’ Michael Dorgan contributed to this report

Anders Hagstrom is a reporter with Fox News Digital covering national politics and major breaking news events. Send tips to [email protected], or on Twitter: @Hagstrom_Anders.

January 28, 2025
Freed Israeli hostage speaks out for first time, says she has ‘returned to my life’ following Hamas captivity

One of the three Israeli hostages released by Hamas is speaking out after spending nearly 500 days in captivity, saying that she has “returned to my life.”

In a post on Instagram, Emily Damari, 28, also wrote, “Thank you, thank you, thank you, I’m the happiest in the world just to be.”

Damari is a dual Israeli-British citizen who lost two fingers during Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel, the Associated Press reported, citing authorities. She was said to be in stable condition on Sunday after being freed from the Gaza Strip.

“Yesterday, I was finally able to give Emily the hug that I have been dreaming of,” her mother Mandy Damari also said Monday in a statement released by the Hostage and Missing Families Forum, which has been advocating for the release of the captives.

ISRAEL RELEASES 90 PALESTINIAN PRISONERS AS PART OF CEASE-FIRE DEAL TO FREE HOSTAGES

Emily Damari, right, and her mother Mandy are seen together after Emily was released from captivity by Hamas militants in Gaza on Sunday, Jan. 19, 2025. (AP/Israeli Army)

“I am relieved to report that after her release, Emily is doing much better than any of us could ever have anticipated,” her mother continued. “In Emily’s own words, she is the happiest girl in the world; she has her life back.”

Mandy Damari described her daughter’s release as an “incredibly happy moment for our family” but said “we must also remember that 94 other hostages still remain.”

“The ceasefire must continue and every last hostage must be returned to their families,” she added.

ISRAEL, HAMAS CEASE-FIRE DEAL COULD ENABLE REARMING OF GAZA TERRORISTS

Former hostage Emily Damari and her mother Mandy hold a video call with Emily’s brother Tom Damari on Sunday, Jan. 19, after she was released from Hamas captivity.

“As wonderful as it is to see Emily’s resilience, these are still early days. As you will have seen yesterday, Emily lost two of the fingers on her left hand,” Mandy Damari also said. “She now needs time with her loved ones and her doctors as she begins her road to recovery.”

Damari was one of three hostages released by Hamas on Sunday as part of a cease-fire agreement.

In exchange, Israel released 90 Palestinian prisoners in the West Bank.

Romi Gonen, right, and her mother Merav hold each other near kibbutz Reim in southern Israel after Romi was released from captivity by Hamas militants in Gaza. (AP/Israeli Army)

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The other two Israeli hostages that were freed were identified as Doron Steinbrecher, 31, and Romi Gonen, 24.

Greg Norman is a reporter at Fox News Digital.

January 23, 2025