Who are the first 3 Israeli hostages to be released by Hamas?
Palestinian militant group Hamas said on Sunday, January 19, it would release three Israeli female hostages as part of the first phase of its ceasefire deal with Israel.
Israel has not confirmed the names of the three women and may not do so until they are handed over after 4 pm (1400 GMT), but the Hostages and Missing Families Forum did name them.
Romi Gonen
Gonen, a dancer, was 23 when Hamas gunmen abducted her from the Nova music festival on October 7, 2023. Gonen spent hours hiding from the gunmen with several friends before being shot in the hand. She was on the phone with her family when they heard her say “I am going to die, today”. The last thing they heard the attackers saying, in Arabic, was “she’s alive, let’s take her.” Her phone was later traced to a location in the Gaza Strip.
Doron Steinbrecher
Steinbrecher was a 30-year-old veterinary nurse who was taken to Gaza from her home in Kibbutz Kfar Aza, one of the communities worst hit in the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on southern Israel. A few hours after the attack began she phoned her parents to say she was scared and that the gunmen had arrived at her building. She then sent a voice message to her friends saying “They’ve arrived, they have me.”
Emily Damari
Damari, 28, is a British-Israeli who was abducted from her home in Kibbutz Kfar Aza. She grew up in London and is a fan of the Tottenham Hotspur soccer team. According to her mother, she was shot in the hand, injured by shrapnel in her leg, blindfolded, bundled into the back of her own car, and driven to Gaza. – Rappler.com