Former Gaza hostages Keith and Aviva Siegel found out they're going to be grandparents on Monday, their daughter Shir Siegel posted to her Instagram account.
In the video, Shir Siegel presented her parents with what appears to be a cookie jar. Once Aviva began unwrapping the gift, she found a positive pregnancy test, cheering and jumping to hug her daughter.
The Siegels have four children, Shai, Gal, Elan, and Shir, and five grandchildren already. This is the first child for Shir Siegel and her husband Yuval Bar-On.
The news comes almost three years since Keith and Aviva Siegel were taken hostage on October 7 after being dragged out of their safe room and taken across the border while held at knifepoint.
Although they were initially held together, Aviva was released after 50 days while Keith remained in captivity for 484 days. The Siegels have become outspoken activists after their harrowing experiences in Gaza, which they described as "torture," both psychological and physical.
Holding onto hope for family kept the Siegels going in captivity
"I was alone without any other hostages for six months, a 60-year-old man, completely alone, not knowing the fate of my loved ones," Keith Siegel said in a testimony before the UN Committee Against Torture (UNCAT) last November.
The Siegels have said that faith in their family's safety was a major point that kept them going in Hamas captivity, making their daughter's announcement all the more striking.
“We felt firsthand the meaning of holding on to hope even in the hardest moments," Keith Siegel said at the SID Israel conference in January.
At the event, the couple also said that their experience being held in Gaza motivated them to enter humanitarian work. They partnered with IsraAID, one of Israel’s leading humanitarian aid organizations, and are set to travel with the NGO to Kenya, where they will visit the world’s largest refugee camp in Kakuma.