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Melania Trump Hosts Freed Hostages Keith and Aviva Siegel at the White House

February 4, 2026 · The White House · 0:09:39

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What happened

First Lady Melania Trump welcomed Keith and Aviva Siegel to the White House in a video published February 4, 2026. She said Aviva Siegel was held hostage for 51 days after being captured by Hamas on October 7, 2023, and Keith Siegel was captured for 484 days, as she stated those lengths. She recalled that after Aviva’s release, Aviva called her and they met in New York in January 2025; Aviva gave her two children’s books, which she passed to her husband that evening along with the situation, and she said the President was fighting for all the hostages and that all of the hostages are now free and home with their families.

Keith Siegel thanked the First Lady and President Trump for bringing him home and for bringing all the hostages back to their families, and said he had committed himself to partnering with IsraAID, an Israeli humanitarian organization, after marking one year of freedom the prior Sunday. He described recent work in the Kakuma refugee camp in Kenya providing clean water, hygiene, sanitation and education, and said giving back is a crucial part of his recovery. Aviva Siegel thanked the First Lady for the hope she gave her, said she had waited for the last hostage to come home, and described a book she is writing for her grandchildren.

In brief press exchanges afterward, the First Lady said she had given the President the books Aviva gave her and explained the situation, and, asked about Ukrainian children, said she was working on it and hoped for success very soon. Asked whether the event promoted her documentary, she said it did not, and that the Siegels were in Washington and had asked to come to thank her.

Why it matters

The meeting documents the First Lady’s personal channel in the hostage story the administration counts among its foreign-policy results, with the freed hostages themselves crediting both Trumps on camera at the White House.

Sources: The White House, “First Lady Melania Trump Meets with Freed American-Israeli Hostage Keith Siegel”, 2026-02-04 (official upload, embedded above; published 2026-02-04). Transcript via Supadata (private research store, paraphrased and attributed, not republished). All figures and characterizations as stated by the speakers.