JERUSALEM —Three women — a soccer fan, a dancer and a veterinary nurse — returned to Israel on Sunday, amid cheers and tears of joy after 15 months in captivity in the Gaza Strip.
They were greeted by their families who had advocated for their release at home and abroad.
Emily Damari
“I’ve returned to my beloved life,” former hostage Emily Damari, 28, posted on social media after her release.
During Hamas’ cross-border terrorist attack Oct. 7, 2023, Damari was seized from her home in kibbutz Kfar Aza and driven into Gaza in her own car, losing two fingers from a gunshot fired by a militant.
A photo and a video showing Damari holding up a bandaged hand has already become an iconic image of the hostages’ resilience.
“I survived!” she shouted as the picture was taken, according to video from the Israel Defense Forces.
Emily Damari hugs her mother, Mandy Damari, on Sunday.
Her mother, Mandy Damari, who had immigrated to Israel from Britain and worked as a kindergarten teacher, campaigned for her daughter’s release, dreaming of the moment when she would finally be able to see her.
Mandy Damari described her daughter, who loves soccer and is a fan of London’s Tottenham Hotspur.
She is a “strong, smart and charismatic daughter whose smiling humor lights up any room she enters,” she told a Knesset committee in one of her many speeches about her daughter. “Yesterday, I was finally able to give Emily the hug that I have been dreaming of,” she wrote in an Instagram post Monday, soon after her daughter was returned from Gaza.
Emily Damari is doing better than anyone could have anticipated, her mother wrote.
“I am also happy that during her release the world was given a glimpse of her feisty and charismatic personality,” Mandy Damari wrote on Instagram. “In Emily’s own words, she is the happiest girl in the world; she has her life back.”
Romi Gonen
The professional modern dancer and choreographer from the northern Israeli town of Kfar Vradim was kidnapped from the Nova music festival, which was stormed by militants early Oct. 7.
“It will take me, us, a moment to breathe … and believe in the reality that we have fulfilled together,” her mother, Meirav Leshem Gonen, wrote on Facebook on Sunday.
Gonen, 24, had called her parents at 7:15 a.m. the morning of the attack, telling them that there was gunfire all around her. What should she do, she asked.
After managing to hide for hours in a bush, she got into a car with another festivalgoer but, as they tried to drive out of the area, their car was attacked and she was taken hostage.
Romi Gonen and her mother, Meirav Leshem Gonen.
Gonen had already texted her parents that she was on her way home when the car she and the others were in came under fire and she was hit.
Bleeding and afraid she was dying, she called her mother.
In June, Meirav Gonen told the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva that her daughter was the “only survivor,”
“She was brutally dragged by her long beautiful hair from the car along the road,” the mother said. “I was a witness to this reality while speaking with her on the phone, hearing her helplessness and frustration without being able to help my baby.”
One of Gonen’s first questions upon her release was, “Where is my mother?”
After hugging her mother, she spoke to her father, Eitan Gonen, on the telephone.
“I came back alive,” Gonen told him.
Doron Steinbrecher
As Hamas-led fighters neared her home in kibbutz Kfar Aza in southern Israel, the 31-year-old veterinary nurse sent her mother, Simona Steinbrecher, a text: “They are here,” it said.
Later, in a chilling message to her friends, she wrote, “They captured me, they captured me, they captured me.”
Hamas released a video clip of Steinbrecher and two other hostages, Daniella Gilboa and Karina Ariev, last January. The trio pleaded with the Israeli government to secure their release.
Former Israeli hostage Doron Steinbrecher with her mother, Simona Steinbrecher, in Israel on Sunday.
In a recent speech at the so-called Hostage Square, her mother, Simona Steinbrecher, said that her daughter, the youngest of three children, brings so much joy and laughter into the house.
She had imagined, the mother said, that the special bond created while her daughter was in her womb would keep her safe throughout her lifetime. It was “heartbreaking,” Simona Steinbrecher said, that she was not able to keep her daughter safe even though she was captured so close to home.
Relatives welcome Israeli hostage Doron Steinbracher in Ramat Gan near Tel Aviv, on Jan. 19, 2025.
She added that she would have done anything to trade places with her daughter.
Shortly after her release, Steinbrecher’s family posted a message on Instagram. “Our beloved Dodo has finally returned to our arms,” it said. “We want to express our heartfelt gratitude to everyone who supported and accompanied us along this journey.”
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
