Hamas releases three Israeli hostages in the first phase of the ceasefire

The first three hostages taken by Hamas in the 7 October attack that sparked a war with Israel were released and met by their parents in Israel, the military announced on Sunday, hours after the fragile ceasefire between the two sides at conflict took hold.

Qatar-based outlet Al Jazeera showed live video of the three women, Romi Gonen, Emily Damari and Doron Steinbrecher, walking between vehicles as their convoy moved through Gaza City, surrounded by a large crowd.

The cars were accompanied by armed men who wore green Hamas headbands and struggled to guard the vehicles from an unruly crowd that swelled into the thousands.

No further glimpses of the three were immediately expected as they will be taken for medical assessment. “They appear to be in good health,” US President Joe Biden said in brief remarks as the released hostages arrived in Israel

Meanwhile, in Tel Aviv, thousands gathered to watch the news on large screens erupted in cheers. For months, many had gathered in the square to demand a ceasefire deal.

‘Mommy, I think I’m going to die’

Romi Gonen was kidnapped from the Nova music festival in southern Israel on 7 October 2023. That morning, Gonen’s mother, Merav, and her eldest daughter spent nearly five hours speaking to Gonen as militants marauded through the festival grounds. Gonen told her family that roads clogged with abandoned cars made escape impossible and that she would seek shelter in some bushes.

Then she said words that continue to echo in her mother’s head every day. “Mommy, I was shot, the car was shot, everybody was shot. … I am wounded and bleeding. Mommy, I think I’m going to die,” she recounted Romi as saying in a press conference a few weeks after the abduction.

At a loss for what to do, Merav Gonen tried to convince her daughter that she wasn’t going to die, to start breathing and treat her wounded friends. According to Merav, Gonen’s last word during the call was a shriek of “mommy” as approaching gunfire, and the men’s shouts drowned out everything.

Then the phone shut off. Israeli authorities identified her phone’s location in Gaza.

Over the past 15 months, Merav has been one of the most outspoken voices advocating for the return of the hostages, appearing nearly daily on Israeli news programs and travelling abroad on missions.

“We are doing everything we can so the world will not forget,” Merav told AP on the six-month anniversary of Hamas’ 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.”

Emily Damari is a British-Israeli citizen kidnapped from her apartment on Kibbutz Kfar Aza, a communal farming village hit hard by Hamas’ assault. She lived in a small apartment in a neighbourhood for young adults, the closest part of the kibbutz to Gaza. Militants broke through the border fence of the kibbutz and ransacked the neighbourhood.

Damari’s mother, Mandy, said she loves music, travelling, soccer, good food, karaoke and hats. Kibbutz Kfar Aza said that Damari was often the “glue that held her close-knit friend group together,” and she was always organizing gatherings of friends around the best barbecue corner in the entire kibbutz.

“I hold on to that sliver of hope that I still keep in my heart that she is surviving, in spite of her suffering,” Mandy Damari said in front of Damari’s burned apartment last January. “I am desperate, angry, and terrified for her life.”

Doron Steinbrecher is am Israeli-Romanian veterinary nurse who loves animals, and a neighbour to Damari in Kibbutz Kfar Aza.

At 10:20 am local time (9:20 am CET) on 7 October, Steinbrecher called her mother. “Mom, I’m scared. I’m hiding under the bed and I hear them trying to enter my apartment,” her brother, Dor, recalled. She was able to send a voice message to her friends, saying, “They’ve got me, they’ve got me, they’ve got me” in the moments of her abduction.

That message was key in helping her family understand that Doron had been kidnapped.

Steinbrecher was featured in a video released by Hamas on 26 January 2024, along with two other female Israeli soldiers. Her brother said the video gave them hope that she was alive but sparked concern because she looked tired, weak, and gaunt.

In total, militants killed 64 people and 22 soldiers and kidnapped 19 people from Kibbutz Kfar Aza on 7 October. With the return of Steinbrecher and Damari, there are still three members of the kibbutz held in Gaza: American-Israeli Keith Siegel, 65, and twins Gali and Ziv Berman, 27.

Israel due to release 90 Palestinian prisoners

In exchange, Israel will release almost 2,000 Palestinian prisoners and Palestinians from Gaza who have been detained.

Families and friends of some of the Palestinian prisoners set to be released from Israel in exchange for hostages in Gaza gathered in Ramallah as cars honked and people waved the Palestinian flag.

About 90 Palestinian prisoners from the West Bank and Jerusalem will be released Sunday after Hamas freed the three Israeli hostages. The Palestinians include 69 women.

Fadia Barghouti was arrested from Ramallah in April and spent three months in prison without being given a reason, she said. Tonight, she hopes to see friends with whom she has been detained.

“I’m happy, because of the ceasefire people can live peacefully,” she said.

She said the war in Gaza is evidence that no one in the Middle East can live peacefully until Palestinians have their rights.

The youngest prisoner scheduled to be released is Mahmoud Aliowat, 15.

Others include Khalida Jarrar, 62, a leading member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a leftist faction with an armed group that has carried out attacks on Israelis. New York-based Human Rights Watch said her repeated arrests are part of Israel’s broader crackdown on non-violent political opposition.

Dalal Khaseeb, 53, the sister of former Hamas second-in-command Saleh Arouri, is also on the list Hamas provided. Arouri was killed in an Israeli strike in a southern Beirut suburb in January 2024.

Also listed for release is Abla Abdelrasoul, 68, the wife of detained PFLP leader Ahmad Saadat, who killed an Israeli cabinet minister in 2001 and has been serving a 30-year sentence.