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

The release of the three Israeli women came just hours after the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas took hold.

Israeli media, carrying live footage from Qatar-based Al Jazeera, showed them walking between vehicles as their convoy moved through Gaza City, surrounded by a huge crowd, with many people holding up phones and filming. The vehicles were accompanied by armed men who wore green Hamas headbands and struggled to guard the cars from an unruly crowd that swelled into the thousands.

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

Romi Gonen was kidnapped from the Nova music festival in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 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 traveling abroad on missions.

“We are doing everything we can so the world will not forget,” Merav told The Associated Press 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 on Oct. 7, 2023, 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. “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 Jan. 26, 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 Oct 7. 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.

Later on Sunday, Israel is expected to release around 90 Palestinian prisoners.

A gradual release of 33 captives over the next six weeks has been agreed on. In exchange, Israel will release almost 2,000 Palestinian prisoners and Palestinians from Gaza who have been detained.