Kathy Manning: “I thank my dear friend, Congresswoman Wasserman Schultz, for putting this evening together and for meeting with me and…”

“I thank my dear friend, Congresswoman Wasserman Schultz, for putting this evening together and for meeting with me and so many other of our Members with hostage families for week after week. On October 7, we woke in horror to Hamas' brutal and despicable terrorist attacks, invading Israel, firing rockets at innocent civilians, going house to house, murdering babies, executing parents in front of their children, and massacring 250 young people at a music festival. As if killing 1,200 people was not enough, Hamas took an estimated 240 innocent civilians hostage in Gaza, including elderly women, babies, young children, and Holocaust survivors. Like many of my colleagues, I have spent the past 7 weeks meeting with the families of hostages, hostages including Keith Siegel from Chapel Hill, North Carolina, and his wife Aviva, who were kidnapped from Kibbutz Kfar Aza. I met with Keith's sister, Lucy, and his niece, Emily, who spoke so lovingly of their family members. Keith and Aviva are the parents of four children and the proud grandparents of five grandchildren. Keith grew up in my home State of North Carolina. He moved to Israel as a young man, where he met Aviva, who was born in South Africa and had moved to Israel at the age of 8. Keith and Aviva have lived happily in Kibbutz Kfar Aza for 40 years.…”