First three Israeli hostages freed in Gaza under ceasefire

Galit Altstein, Bloomberg News on Jan 19, 2025

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Three female Israelis have been freed by Hamas, the first of several dozen hostages set to be released under a new ceasefire deal in Gaza.

The three women — Romi Gonen, Doron Steinbrecher and Emily Damari, who’s also a British national — were transferred by the Red Cross to the Israel Defense Forces in the Gaza strip, according to a statement Sunday.

They will now be transported to a border-adjacent location that was prepared in advance for their receipt, where they will be met by their family. From there they will be flown by military helicopters to hospitals across Israel.

“The Israeli government embraces the three returnees. Their families were informed by the appointed officials that they joined our (IDF) forces,” according to a statement from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office. “The Israeli government is committed to the return of all abductees and missing persons.”

Israel will now begin preparations for the immediate release of 90 Palestinian prisoners, 30 for each of the hostages released. The list is comprised of 69 women and 21 men, some of whom are minors.

The transfer comes hours after the start of a Qatari and Egyptian-mediated deal that’s backed by Washington, which stipulates an initial six-week truce during which 33 hostages will be freed by Hamas in return for hundreds of Palestinians jailed by Israel. Sunday’s swap is the first to take place as part of the agreement.

Steinbrecher, 31, and Damari, 28, were kidnapped from Kfar Aza, and Gonen, 24, was abducted at the Nova music festival on Oct. 7, 2023.

Thousands of ordinary Israelis have gathered outside the Tel Aviv Museum of Art in what has become known as Hostages Square to watch and wait as the three women are returned home.

Avichai Brodutch, whose wife and three children were abducted to Gaza and released after 51 days more than a year ago, said on Sunday that he has only an inkling of what the families expecting their daughters home after 15 months have endured.

Two of the women coming back on Sunday are from Brodutch’s collective community, Kfar Aza, as are three men due to be returned later in the process.

Brodutch said when he got the call in November of 2023 that his family was due out later that day, he rushed to Kfar Aza, which was still in ruins from the Hamas attack the previous month, and grabbed special objects — blankets, dolls, his wife’s handbag — to greet them when they met.

At the hospital to which they were taken, he said, “I waited when the elevators opened, I saw my children coming out the doors, it was unimaginable. I got my family reborn. They were thin and full of lice but speaking and breathing. Hostages live with wounds in their souls for their whole lives. But we have lived a miracle and I thank God for it every day.”

—With assistance from Ethan Bronner and Fadwa Hodali.

(Updates to show IDF has received the three released hostages.)