Romi Gonen, Emily Damari, and Doron Steinbrecher have been reunited with their families.
Three hostages were released from Gaza on Sunday, as a long-awaited truce between Israel and Hamas went into effect. The women — Romi Gonen, Emily Damari, and Doron Steinbrecher — were returned to Israel, and 30 more hostages are expected to be released over the course of the six-week ceasefire. In exchange, Israel has agreed to free more than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners.
Gonen, Damari, and Steinbrecher were escorted out of Gaza by the Red Cross, and were met by their families at the Sheba Medical Center in Tel Aviv. All three appear to be in good health, according to the humanitarian organization. Here’s more on the hostages returning home after 15 months of war, and their touching reunions.
Emily Damari
On Oct. 7, 2023, Emily Tehila Damari was shot in the hand, injured by shrapnel, and dragged from her home in Kibbutz Kfar Aza. The 28-year-old British Israeli citizen was taken hostage along with her friend Gali Berman, who remains in captivity, the Wall Street Journal reports.
“Emily and all the remaining hostages are in hell,” Damari’s mother, Mandy, said at a rally in Tel Aviv earlier this month. “The times for words and comfort are long gone.”
Mandy described her daughter as an avid fan of the soccer team Tottenham Hotspur, who had “the classic British sense of humor, with a dash of Israeli chutzpah thrown in for good measure.” Damari was reunited with her mother on Sunday. A photo released by the Israeli Defense Forces shows the two of them smiling, with Damari raising her bandaged left hand, which appears to be missing two fingers.
“We would like to thank from the bottom of our hearts everyone who fought tirelessly for Emily throughout this difficult time,” Mandy Damari said in a statement. “To everyone who raised her voice and called her name, in Israel, England, the United States and the whole world — thank you.”
Romi Gonen
Romi Gonen was captured trying to flee the Nova music festival on Oct. 7. She told her family over the phone, while attempting to escape the violence: “I am going to die, today,” Reuters reports. According to the 24-year-old’s family, Gonen was shot in the arm, and the last thing they heard on the call was her attackers saying in Arabic: “She’s alive, let’s take her.”
Gonen’s father, Eitan Gonen, said his daughter is like “sunshine,” and loves to dance.
“We are doing everything we can so the world will not forget,” Gonen’s mother, Merav, told the Associated Press on the six-month anniversary of the attack. “Every day we wake up and take a big breath deep breath, and continue walking, continue doing the things that will bring her back.”
Doron Steinbrecher
Steinbrecher, a veterinary nurse, was also abducted from Kibbutz Kfar Aza. That morning, Steinbrecher’s brother, Dor, said she called their mother, saying: “Mom, I’m scared. I’m hiding under the bed and I hear them trying to enter my apartment.”
Steinbrecher’s sister Yamit Ashkenazi told KCM that the 31-year-old is “full of compassion.”
“When she enters the room, everyone looks at her. Her laugh is magnetic,” Ashkenazi told us.
