Thousands of Israelis gathered in Hostages Square in Tel Aviv, some cheering and some in tears, as a giant television screen broadcast glimpses of the first three hostages to be released under the Gaza ceasefire deal.
amid a surging crowd that was held back by armed men in camouflaged military gear, with green Hamas headbands.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said: “Romi, Doron, Emily, an entire nation embraces you.”
Romi Gonen
Romi Gonen and her mother Merav embrace after Romi was released from captivity by Hamas militants in Gaza. Hamas gunmen abducted Romi from the Nova music festival on 7 October 2023. Source: AP / AP
Gonen, a dancer, was 23 when Hamas gunmen abducted her from the Nova music festival during the 7 October 2023 attack.
She spent hours hiding from the gunmen with several friends before being shot in the hand.
She was on the phone with her family when they heard her say: “I am going to die today.”
The last thing they heard the attackers saying, in Arabic, was: “She’s alive, let’s take her.” Her phone was later traced to a location in the Gaza Strip.
On the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, her family described her as: “24 years old, lives in Kfar Vradim. She loves dancing, travelling, and enjoying life.”
On Sunday, her father, Eitan Gonen, posted on Facebook, saying: “Romi is coming home!”
Doron Steinbrecher
Steinbrecher, a 30-year-old veterinary nurse and Israeli-Romanian citizen, was taken to Gaza from her home in kibbutz Kfar Aza, one of the communities worst hit in the October 7 Hamas attack on southern Israel.
A few hours after the attack began, she phoned her parents to say she was scared and the gunmen had reached her building.
She then sent a voice message to her friends saying: “They’ve arrived, they have me.”
Doron Steinbrecher and her mother Simona embrace after Doron was released from captivity by Hamas militants in Gaza. Doron was abducted from her home in kibbutz Kfar Aza on 7 October 2023. Source: AP / AP
Steinbrecher’s family published a statement expressing gratitude after her release.
“After an unbearable 471 days, our beloved Dodo has finally returned to our arms. We want to express our heartfelt gratitude to everyone who supported and accompanied us along this journey,” the statement said.
Emily Damari
Damari, 28, is a British-Israeli who was abducted from her home in kibbutz Kfar Aza.
She grew up in London and is a fan of the Tottenham Hotspur football team.
Emily Damari and her mother Mandy were reunited on Sunday after Emily was released from captivity by Hamas militants in Gaza. Source: AP / AP
According to Damari’s mother, she was shot in the hand, injured by shrapnel in her leg, blindfolded, bundled into the back of her own car, and driven to Gaza.
After a nerve-racking morning, waiting to hear whether Damari would be one of the three hostages freed on Sunday, her friends breathed a sigh of relief.
“We didn’t have any sign of life from her for a whole year and this is the first time we are seeing her, and we are seeing her walking on her two feet and we are just waiting here to hug her and say how much we love her,” Damari’s friend Guy Kleinberger said.
What about the remaining hostages?
The release of the three women, the first of 33 hostages due to be freed from Gaza under phase one of the ceasefire deal, is in exchange for 90 Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails.
But amid hope among many Israelis that the six-week ceasefire marks the beginning of the end to the war, there is deep unease about the uncertainty surrounding the remaining 94 hostages still held in the Gaza Strip.
For many in Israel, the war will not be over while Hamas still stands and there have been a series of rallies opposing the ceasefire as a sell-out that abandons men of military age taken captive, who are not in the first batch of 33 hostages.
The Israel Democracy Institute said its latest Israeli Voice Index, conducted just before the deal was agreed, found 57.5 per cent of Israelis in favour of a comprehensive agreement that would witness all hostages back in return for ending the war.
At a rally for the hostages in Sderot on Saturday, one woman told SBS News she hopes for the best but believes the ceasefire could be broken at any time.
“It’s very fragile. It could be broken any minute now from our side and from their side. So we only have to pray that each day will bring more good news.”
Israel has bombarded Gaza since Hamas’ October 7 attack in which more than 1,200 people, including an estimated 30 children, were killed and over 200 hostages taken, according to the Israeli government.
More than 46,000 people have been killed in Gaza since October 7, according to the health ministry in Gaza.
The October 7 attack was a significant escalation in the long-standing conflict between Israel and Hamas.
