JERUSALEM (AP) — Three hostages held by Hamas are set to be released Sunday after 471 days in captivity, as part of a ceasefire agreement between Israel and the Palestinian militant group. A step-by-step release of dozens of captives is planned for the coming weeks.
Some people are concerned that the number of captives who have died is higher than what was originally forecast.
About 250 people were taken hostage by Hamas on October 7, 2023, which sparked a 15-month conflict. Approximately 100 hostages are still being held in Gaza, as the rest were either released or their remains were recovered.
Hours before the ceasefire Sunday, which many hope will be the first step in ending the war, Israel announced that they had recovered the body of Oron Shaul, a soldier who was killed in the 2014 Israel-Gaza conflict and whose remains had been held by the militants since then.
Here are the details in a look at the three hostages scheduled to be released Sunday:
Romi Gonen, 24
Romi Gonen was abducted from the Nova music festival in southern Israel on October 7, 2023. That morning, Gonen’s mother, Merav, and her oldest daughter spent nearly five hours conversing with Gonen as attackers rampaged through the festival grounds. Gonen told her family that blocked roads with abandoned cars made escape impossible and that she would seek cover among the bushes.
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Desperate and unsure of what to do, Merav Gonen begged her daughter to pull through, to start breathing and tend to her wounded friends. According to Merav, Gonen’s final words during the call were a desperate cry of “Mommy!” as the sound of gunfire and the men’s chaotic shouts overpowered everything.
Then the phone abruptly went dead. Israeli authorities were able to pinpoint her phone’s location in the Gaza Strip.
For the past 15 months, Merav has been one of the most outspoken advocates for the release of the hostages, frequently appearing on Israeli news programs and frequently traveling abroad to advance their cause.
“Every day we wake up and take a deep breath, breathe deeply, and carry on with the things that will keep her coming back to us.”
Emily Damari, 28
Emily Damari, a British-Israeli citizen, was taken from her apartment on Kibbutz Kfar Aza, a communal farm community heavily impacted by attacks from Hamas. She resided in a small apartment in a neighborhood for young adults, which is the part of the kibbutz closest to the Gaza border. Terrorists breached the kibbutz’s border fence and raided the neighborhood.
Damari’s mom, Mandy, said she enjoys music, traveling, soccer, good food, karaoke, and hats. The people at Kfar Aza Kibbutz said that Damari was often the one who kept her close-knit group of friends together, and she’d frequently get them together for gatherings by the best barbecue spot they had in the kibbutz.
I hold onto a glimmer of hope in my heart that she’s still alive, despite all she’s going through,” Mandy Damari said in front of her burned apartment last January. “I’m desperate, angry, and terrified for her safety.
Doron Steinbrecher, 31
Doron Steinbrecher is a veterinary nurse who adores animals, and lives next to Damari in Kibbutz Kfar Aza.
At 10:20 on October 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, remembered. 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.
The message was critical in informing her family that Doron had been taken.
Steinbrecher was shown in a video released by Hamas on January 26, 2024. The video featured her alongside two other Israeli female soldiers. Her brother felt a glimmer of hope that she was alive after seeing the video, but was also worried about her appearance, describing her as looking tired, weak, and frail.
Thelma Schoonmaker, 88, and twins Galit and Ziv Berman, 27.
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Oron Shaul was a soldier who lost his life on July 20, 2014, in the conflict between Israel and Hamas. The bodies of he and another soldier, Hadar Goldin, had been held captive by militants ever since, despite the efforts of their families to have them returned to their homeland.
Families of the hostages, who are represented by the Hostages Families Forum, refer to the Shaul family as a “completely united and inseparable part” of the group.
Occupants still hold the bodies of Goldin as well as two Israelis who crossed into Gaza in 2014 and 2015 voluntarily.
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