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President Donald Trump called for the release of five Americans held hostage by Gaza since Oct. 7 on Tuesday.
Trump took to social media to list the hostages by name, reminding Americans not to forget the hostages.
“Let’s all continue to keep the American hostages held in Gaza in our thoughts. They must be brought home!” he wrote on Truth Social.
He then listed the names of the five individuals as, “Edan Alexander, Omer Neutra, Hersh Goldberg Polin, Sagui Deckel Chen and K[e]ith Siegel.”
Alexander, a dual citizen raised in the U.S., graduated from high school in New Jersey before moving to Israel to serve for a year in the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) before starting college. He was on patrol the morning of Oct. 7 when he was abducted by Hamas terrorists.
“I told him at the end of the call: ‘Listen to me, Edan. I’m here. I’m with you. I love you. Just protect yourself. Just be safe,’” his mother Yael said about a brief call he made home before he was taken hostage.
“And that’s it, we hang up. I didn’t know I’m not gonna hear from him again,” she added.
Omer, 22, is a grandson of Holocaust survivors. He served in the IDF where his team responded to the Oct. 7 terror attacks. His unit was attacked by terrorists armed with rocket-propelled grenades, according to the American Jewish Committee.
Siegel, 64, is originally from North Carolina and served in Israel as an occupational therapist.
“They forced my parents, unassuming people filled with kindness and a quiet sensitivity, into my father’s car and took them to Gaza,” his daughter Elan Siegel wrote on Fox News. “We don’t know where they were taken. We have no idea what condition they might be in. We have heard nothing from them or about them since they were kidnapped.”
She added that one of the most heartbreaking moments was when she had to tell her children that their grandfather was being held hostage by terrorists.
“Eventually, we had to tell their five young grandchildren. We held hands in a circle and my sister (an American citizen like myself and our father) tried to explain where grandma and grandpa have gone. But how do you explain to children that monsters really do exist?” she asked.
“Each day, they ask when their grandparents are coming home. I just hope that my parents are together, so that they too can hold each other’s hands just like we did,” she added.
Hamas terrorists killed over 1,200 people on Oct. 7. A total of 115 hostages remain in Gaza, including 74 alive and 41 dead whose bodies have not been recovered, according to the Israeli government.
