The following is the transcript of an interview with Hanna Siegel, niece of freed hostage Keith Siegel, on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan” that aired on Feb. 2, 2025.
MARGARET BRENNAN: The temporary cease fire between Israel and Hamas is still holding, and three more hostages were released yesterday, including American-Israeli dual national, Keith Siegel, his niece Hanna Siegel is here with us this morning. Good morning. You’ve been waiting for this for over 400 days. How is your uncle doing?
HANNA SIEGEL: First, thank you for having me. I’ve been dreaming about being here today. He’s- he’s doing okay. He’s, he’s lost some weight, he’s pale, but he’s strong, and he’s doing okay. Somehow. We’re incredibly grateful.
MARGARET BRENNAN: I mean, we’ve seen the video and the images of him being reunited with family members. Will your father, his brother, see him soon?
SIEGEL: Yes, he’s on his way. We’ve been staggering the family visits so as not to overwhelm him. But yes, we are all- we are all going to see him. And actually, his youngest daughter, Shir, got engaged a month before October 7, and so the wedding planning began, and then abruptly came to a stop as both of her parents, Keith and my aunt Aviva, who was released in the November 2023 deal, were taken hostage. So what we’ve talked about is that, you know, someday, we’re all going to get together and throw an absolutely epic wedding, and that’s what we’re looking forward to now.
MARGARET BRENNAN: So you’ve been an advocate for the family here in Washington, both with the Biden and the Trump administrations. In your view, do you think this deal, this hostage release, would have happened without American pressure?
SIEGEL: No, definitely not. And I do want to say to the Biden team, Jake Sullivan, Brett McGurk, President Biden, Secretary, Blinken, Bill Burns, they were so tireless in their commitment to get this deal done. But the really amazing thing is that the minute that President Trump was elected, his team started working hand in glove with the Biden administration. We felt no break in the commitment to get Keith home. Steve Witkoff and Adam Boehler, along with President Trump, started working hand-in-hand with the Biden team and I don’t know what other issue you can say that about with these administrations. The Trump team really did push it over the finish line and we’re incredibly grateful, incredibly grateful to all of them for the work that they did. I also just want to say the Qatari negotiators, mediators who were part of the November 2023 deal were also instrumental. And then what I’ve learned in this completely bizarre experience is that there is a whole industry of people, NGOs, who work on hostage negotiations on behalf of families. We worked with Global Reach, Mickey Bergman, Stacia George and Eric Lebson, they’re a nonprofit. We would not have gotten Keith home without them. So it was just a tremendous group effort across the board, across political lines, and that’s heartening.
MARGARET BRENNAN: You told us back in April on this program that you were worried, quote, “it’s not arguably in Prime Minister Netanyahu’s political interest to close a deal,” and you were worried he was going to sink it. He has announced phase two of the hostage framework begins getting negotiated tomorrow, Monday. Do you think he’s incentivized now to actually see this deal through?
SIEGEL: I think that the Trump team has done a really tremendous job of putting serious pressure on him, and that that is making a difference. I think that he, you know, we’re static, that Keith is home, but it took almost 500 days, and that is in part because of Netanyahu. This deal was available for months. The Biden team was working on it and- and he wouldn’t come to the table often. I mean, there are- this is such a complicated issue, but I am worried. I think this is a really fragile deal, as we all understand and so, you know, I have a lot of faith in the Trump team and in all of the people working on this to put serious pressure on him to see it through. I think what we’ve seen is that diplomacy and political agreement is the only way to get all of the hostages home. And you know, we’re one of the lucky ones, but there remain five American citizens and dozens of other hostages who still need to come home.
MARGARET BRENNAN: And the remains of some of those Americans wouldn’t come through until phase three and phase two. We know Edan Alexander, a uniformed IDF soldier who is a U.S. citizen.
SIEGEL: Yes.
MARGARET BRENNAN: The deal would have to continue to work to actually bring him home. Sagui Chen, we’re waiting on him to be released as well.
SIEGEL: Exactly.
MARGARET BRENNAN: So I emphasize that, because when we talk about deals and diplomacy, these are lives at risk, and if the deal doesn’t continue to stay in place, they may be.
SIEGEL: And these are Americans. These are Americans who need to come home.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Hanna, thank you.
SIEGEL: Thank you so much.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Congratulations.
SIEGEL: Thank you.
MARGARET BRENNAN: It’s great news.
SIEGEL: Thank you for having me.
MARGARET BRENNAN: We’ll be right back.
