The first three hostages were released from Gaza as part of a shaky operation Ceasefire and hostage release agreement between Israel and Hamas The army announced that the forces that took effect on Sunday had arrived in Israel. Their mothers were waiting to meet them.
The three women — identified by the Forum for Hostages and Missing Families as 24-year-old Romy Gonen, 31-year-old Doron Steinbrecher, and 28-year-old Emily Damari — were released by Hamas militants to the Red Cross at around 10:30. A.M. AM EST, 5:30 PM CT. They have been detained since the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, 2023.
Forum for families of hostages and missing persons
A senior Israeli army official said that the Red Cross handed them over to the IDF in Israel for initial examinations at special reception centers near the border with Gaza.
Brett McGurk, the Biden administration’s National Security Council coordinator for the Middle East and North Africa, said Sunday on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan” that he had spoken with his Israeli counterparts about the hostage conditions.
“I know they’re alive,” McGurk said. “They have been held in deplorable conditions for 470 days, but the Israelis have a very good system in place to take them into their care, and they will get the care they need and will be reunited with their families.”
About 250 people were kidnapped during the Hamas attack on October 7, 2023, which sparked a 15-month war. About 100 hostages remain in Gaza after the rest were released or their bodies were recovered.
Hours before Sunday’s ceasefire, which many hope will be the first step to ending the war, Israel announced it had recovered the body of Oron Shaul, a soldier killed in the 2014 war between Israel and Hamas and whose remains are held by the IDF. militants since then.
Both McGurk and Trump’s new national security adviser, Mike Waltz, told “Face the Nation” that Israeli-American soldier Idan Alexander is scheduled to be released next. “We’ll get him out, period,” Waltz said.
Here’s what we know about them:
Rumi Gonen, 24
Hostage Family Forum via AP
Gonen was kidnapped from the Nova Music Festival in southern Israel on October 7, 2023. That morning, Gonen’s mother, Merav, and her eldest daughter spent nearly five hours talking to Gonen as gunmen raided the festival grounds. Junine told her family that roads clogged with abandoned cars made escape impossible and that she would take refuge in some bushes.
Then she said words that still echo in her mother’s head every day. “Mom, she was shot, the car was hit, everyone was shot… I’m wounded and bleeding. Mom, I think I’m going to die.” Al-Rumi narrated, saying:In a press conference a few weeks after the kidnapping.
Over the past 15 months, Merav has been one of the most outspoken voices advocating for the return of hostages, appearing almost daily on Israeli news programs and traveling abroad on missions.
“We are doing everything we can so that the world does not forget,” Merav told the Associated Press. Sixth anniversary of the Hamas attack. “Every day we wake up and take a big breath, a deep breath, and keep walking, and keep doing the things that will bring you back.”
Emily Damari, 28
Hostage Family Forum via AP
Damari is a British-Israeli national who was kidnapped from her apartment in Kibbutz Kfar Azza, a collective farming village badly damaged by the Hamas attack. She lived in a small apartment in a youth neighborhood. The gunmen breached the kibbutz’s border fence and looted the neighborhood.
Kibbutz Kfar Azza said Damari was often “the glue holding her close-knit group of friends together” and was always organizing gatherings of friends around the best barbecue corner in the entire kibbutz.
“All Emily’s mother Mandy wants to do is hug Emily. But she won’t believe it until she sees it,” said Emily Cohen, who represents Damari’s family. CBS News is a BBC partner before her release.
Doron Steinbrecher, 31
Hostage Family Forum via AP
Steinbrecher is a veterinary nurse who loves animals, and Damari’s neighbor in Kibbutz Kfar Azza.
At 10:20 on October 7, 2023, Steinbrecher called her mother. Her brother, Dor, said, according to the Associated Press: “Mom, I am scared. I am hiding under the bed and I hear them trying to enter my apartment.”
Steinbrecher appeared in a video published by Hamas on January 26, 2024, along with two other Israeli female soldiers.
How will the other hostages be released?
Gonen, Steinbrecher and Damari are the first three hostages to be released under the newly implemented ceasefire and hostage release agreement between Israel and Hamas, which will be implemented in phases.
The first phase of the ceasefire stipulates that Hamas will release 33 hostages within six weeks. The draft, seen by CBS News, said they included women, children and hostages over the age of 50.
On the first day of the deal, three hostages were scheduled to be released by Hamas. On the seventh day, four hostages were scheduled to be released. After that, Hamas will release three hostages from Israel every seven days, starting with the living and then moving on to return the bodies of the dead.
More than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners in Israel will also be released in the first phase of the deal. Israel was expected to release 90 prisoners in exchange for the release of the first three hostages.
The Forum for Families of Hostages and Missing Persons said in a statement: “These are critical and emotional hours for the families and for all of Israel.” “While we rejoice for each hostage who returns home, we remain deeply concerned for our loved ones who may be left behind. Now, more than ever, we need the public to stand with us until the last hostage returns. Only through our united strength will we leave anyone behind.” “We can ensure that everyone comes back, the living for rehabilitation and the deceased for a proper burial.”