A ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip has come into effect, pausing a 15-month war that has brought devastation and political change to the Middle East.
As part of the agreement, three Israeli hostages named Romi Gonen, Doron Steinbrecher and Emily Damari by Hamas are scheduled to be released later Sunday.
Emily Damari, 28 years old
Hamas abducted Damari, a joint British-Israeli citizen, on October 7, 2023, from an apartment in Kfar Azha Kibbutz, along with 37 other residents of the community on the Gaza border. She is a British national and is the only hostage being held.
The last message she sent to her family on the day of her abduction was around 10 a.m., when she managed to send a message that Hamas was in the neighborhood and was firing shots near her apartment.
According to friends and family, Damali was injured and abducted blindfolded from his car, based on witness evidence from the attack.
She was shot in the hand, “injured by shrapnel in the leg, blindfolded, stuffed into the back seat of my car and driven back to Gaza,” her mother Mandy Damari later said.
In December, Mandy told the BBC.: “She's suffering from gunshot wounds in her hands and legs…I worry every day, I worry every second, because the next moment she could be killed just because she's there.” Because I can’t.”
A fan of Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, Damali grew up in south-east London but later moved to Israel. She is the granddaughter of Sidney Moss, long-time managing director of the British Jewish Chronicle.
Romi Gonen, 24 years old
Gonen, a former volunteer scout counselor, was attending the Nova Music Festival, a dance party near the Gaza border, when he was shot in the hand and abducted by Hamas gunmen on October 7. Three of my friends who were with me at the festival were killed.
He was kidnapped while trying to drive away from the festival, but managed to speak to his mother during the abduction. “Mom, they shot me and I'm bleeding,” she told her mother, Meirav Reshem Gonen. “Everyone in the car was bleeding.”
The car Gonen was traveling in was later found to be empty, but her phone signal was traced to Gaza.
A month after the attack, one of the hostages, who was released in November 2023 as part of a previous cease-fire agreement, told Gonen's family that Romi was alive but his hand was in poor condition. .
“Her hands aren't working. Her fingers can barely move and are changing color – that was 10 weeks ago.” The family told the Daily Mail..
Doron Steinbrecher, 31 years old
Steinbrecher, a veterinary nurse, was abducted from her home in Kfar Azha when gunmen entered her safe room during the attack. When she was captured in her pajamas and taken to Gaza, she told her family on the phone: “They are here.”
Steinbrecher was known to be alive last January when she appeared in a Hamas video with two other prisoners, Daniela Gilboa and Karina Aliyev, pleading for their release.
During the attack, she was in contact with her sister Yamit Ashkenazi and her parents, who were also in their kibbutz home at the time of the attack.
At around 10:30 a.m., Delon told his parents that he was “scared.” A little later, she sent a voice message to her friends. “They have arrived. They are taking me.”
