JERUSALEM —Three girls — a soccer fan, a dancer and a veterinary nurse — returned to Israel on Sunday, amid cheers and tears of pleasure after 15 months in captivity within the Gaza Strip.
They had been greeted by their households who had advocated for his or her launch at house and overseas.
Emily Damari
“I’ve returned to my beloved life,” former hostage Emily Damari, 28, posted on social media after her launch.
Throughout Hamas’ cross-border terrorist assault Oct. 7, 2023, Damari was seized from her house in kibbutz Kfar Aza and pushed into Gaza in her personal automobile, shedding two fingers from a gunshot fired by a militant.
A photograph and a video exhibiting Damari holding up a bandaged hand has already turn into an iconic picture of the hostages’ resilience.
“I survived!” she shouted as the image was taken, in keeping with video from the Israel Protection Forces.
Emily Damari hugs her mom, Mandy Damari, on Sunday.
Her mom, Mandy Damari, who had immigrated to Israel from Britain and labored as a kindergarten trainer, campaigned for her daughter’s launch, dreaming of the second when she would lastly be capable of see her.
Mandy Damari described her daughter, who loves soccer and is a fan of London’s Tottenham Hotspur.
She is a “robust, sensible and charismatic daughter whose smiling humor lights up any room she enters,” she informed a Knesset committee in one in every of her many speeches about her daughter. “Yesterday, I used to be lastly capable of give Emily the hug that I’ve been dreaming of,” she wrote in an Instagram publish Monday, quickly after her daughter was returned from Gaza.
Emily Damari is doing higher than anybody may have anticipated, her mom wrote.
“I’m additionally pleased that in her launch the world was given a glimpse of her feisty and charismatic character,” Mandy Damari wrote on Instagram. “In Emily’s personal phrases, she is the happiest woman on this planet; she has her life again.”
Romi Gonen
The skilled fashionable dancer and choreographer from the northern Israeli city of Kfar Vradim was kidnapped from the Nova music competition, which was stormed by militants early Oct. 7.
“It would take me, us, a second to breathe … and imagine within the actuality that now we have fulfilled collectively,” her mom, Meirav Leshem Gonen, wrote on Fb on Sunday.
Gonen, 24, had referred to as her dad and mom at 7:15 a.m. the morning of the assault, telling them that there was gunfire throughout her. What ought to she do, she requested.
After managing to cover for hours in a bush, she acquired right into a automobile with one other festivalgoer however, as they tried to drive out of the realm, their automobile was attacked and he or she was taken hostage.
Romi Gonen and her mom, Meirav Leshem Gonen.
Gonen had already texted her dad and mom that she was on her method house when the automobile she and the others had been in got here below hearth and he or she was hit.
Bleeding and afraid she was dying, she referred to as her mom.
In June, Meirav Gonen informed the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva that her daughter was the “solely survivor,”
“She was brutally dragged by her lengthy stunning hair from the automobile alongside the street,” the mom mentioned. “I used to be a witness to this actuality whereas talking along with her on the cellphone, listening to her helplessness and frustration with out with the ability to assist my child.”
Certainly one of Gonen’s first questions upon her launch was, “The place is my mom?”
After hugging her mom, she spoke to her father, Eitan Gonen, on the phone.
“I got here again alive,” Gonen informed him.
Doron Steinbrecher
As Hamas-led fighters neared her house in kibbutz Kfar Aza in southern Israel, the 31-year-old veterinary nurse despatched her mom, Simona Steinbrecher, a textual content: “They’re right here,” it mentioned.
Later, in a chilling message to her mates, she wrote, “They captured me, they captured me, they captured me.”
Hamas launched a video clip of Steinbrecher and two different hostages, Daniella Gilboa and Karina Ariev, final January. The trio pleaded with the Israeli authorities to safe their launch.
Doron Steinbrecher along with her mom, Simona Steinbrecher, in Israel on Sunday.
In a latest speech on the so-called Hostage Sq., her mom, Simona Steinbrecher, mentioned that her daughter, the youngest of three youngsters, brings a lot pleasure and laughter into the home.
She had imagined, the mom mentioned, that the particular bond created whereas her daughter was in her womb would preserve her secure all through her lifetime. It was “heartbreaking,” Simona Steinbrecher mentioned, that she was not capable of preserve her daughter secure regardless that she was captured so near house.
Kinfolk welcome Doron Steinbracher in Ramat Gan, close to Tel Aviv, on Sunday.
She added that she would have accomplished something to commerce locations along with her daughter.
Shortly after her launch, Steinbrecher’s household posted a message on Instagram. “Our beloved Dodo has lastly returned to our arms,” it mentioned. “We need to specific our heartfelt gratitude to everybody who supported and accompanied us alongside this journey.”
This text was initially revealed on NBCNews.com
