More than 100 hostages are still being held captive by Hamas.

Among them, eight Americans, including the bodies of three Americans confirmed dead and five believed to still be alive.

Israeli American Keith Siegel was kidnaped from his home in southern Israel during the Hamas attack on October 7th.

I spoke with his niece, Hanna Siegel, earlier today about the status of hostage negotiations and her family's relentless work to bring her uncle home.

Hannah, welcome to the NewsHour.

Thank you for being here.

Thank you so much for having me.

So your Uncle Keith Siegel was one of the hostages in a video that Hamas released last week.

You're wearing that number 208, to represent the number of days that he has now been held as a policy.

We don't show those videos, but I just wanted to ask what you thought when you saw him and when you heard his message.

Yeah.

It was.

It was surreal.

I mean, it's it's the first time that we've seen him or heard his voice in over 208 days.

My aunt Aviva, who is a hostage survivor and was held and released, in November in the ceasefire deal, they were held together.

And so when she came out, she was able to tell us a little bit about how he's doing.

But since then, we didn't know if he was alive or how he was.

I think there was an immense sense of relief just to hear his voice and see his face, and it's it's devastating.

I, I don't know how to describe what it's like to look at a family member in that situation.

He talks the the first thing he says is, I love you and I hope you're okay to our family.

And he talks about Passover and he also talks about hearing bombs nearby.

There are so many facets to this and so many ways in which we're worried about him.

There is a moment in the video where he does break down.

I can't imagine how difficult this must be for you and your family to watch that, but how how did he seem to you after all this time in captivity?

I mean.

His voice.

It's it's him.

It's him.

And that was that was one thing that gave me a lot of comfort.

But he's gaunt.

He looks weak.

He looks older.

I, you know, he's being he's being held underground.

I, I worry every single day.

You know, I remember when Aviva was released, she told me that they were starting to starve.

And that was a long time ago.

So I think about that a lot.

You know that a deal to release him remain stalled right now.

And you said earlier this week something that stuck with me.

You said you don't or you're not sure, rather that it's actually in Prime Minister Netanyahu's political interest to make a deal.

What did you mean by that?

You know, there have been deals on the table in the past.

There's a lot that happens in these negotiations.

It's hard to keep track.

I'm obviously not on the inside, but from what I do know and from what I've seen, he hasn't made those deals.

It hasn't always been clear that he's ready to lean in and prioritize the hostages over anything else.

And so I guess what I would say is, I hope that Prime Minister Netanyahu prioritizes his own citizens, the hostages, before any political considerations and gets this deal done.

I think one thing that we've seen over the last six months and frankly, throughout history with Hamas, is that the deals don't get better.

You know, weeks ago we were talking about 40 hostages potentially in this next round.

That number has gone down.

Every single day that goes by is another day that a hostage could die in captivity, or another day where our family members aren't coming home.

So to me, this is the moment, this this is our chance.

In the U.S., officials have said that Israel has made significant concessions in this latest round of talks.

But Hamas wants, in the second phase of a deal a commitment to end the war in Gaza, which Netanyahu says he will not agree to.

Do you want him to make that deal?

I want him to bring my uncle home and everybody home.

And I do think that bringing the hostages home is the first step to ending this devastation overall, and that's really important.

The political calculations, the back and forth, what he's saying, what U.S. officials are saying.

I've sort of learned not to ride the roller coaster of that, if I can, until we know exactly what's happening.

But I want the hostages back, and so do millions of people all over the world.

I know we've really felt that support.

You've talked about how supportive the Biden administration has been, and you feel their support, and that they are fighting for you and your family.

Your uncle is an American citizen, one of a handful of Americans held hostage right now.

If you don't trust that, Netanyahu will take the steps necessary to prioritize bringing home your uncle and the others.

Do you want President Biden to start to negotiate for the release of the Americans?

At least I think we need to see what happens with this deal.

I think getting all of the hostages home is and should be the top priority.

The Biden administration has made it very clear to me and my family from the beginning that they will do what it takes to bring the Americans home, including Keith.

And so I have ultimate faith and trust in President Biden and Jake Sullivan and Secretary Blinken and their whole team, who's looking to bring these people home by any means necessary?

Do you think there's more that they could be doing to apply pressure on the Netanyahu government to make a deal?

Everything that I can see shows that they're doing absolutely everything that they can.

You mentioned that your Aunt Keith's wife was freed back during that hostage deal that was made last November.

Our audience may remember we spoke to her soon after her release.

I just want to ask you, how is she doing today?

Thank you for asking.

Aviva's.

Incredible.

I mean, she went through something that is unimaginable, and she came out and she decided she was going to spend every minute of every day fighting to get her husband, my uncle and all of the other hostages out.

She is so committed to this and, and fighting every day.

She is a hero.

Her strength is, you know, incomparable.

We're glad she's home with you.

We hope that your Uncle Keith is home with you soon.

Hannah Siegel, thank you so much for being with us today.

Thank you.