Bel Trew
The Independent / January 20, 2025
Families of three female hostages plead for the ceasefire to continue in their first public comments since the dramatic release of their loved ones.
Tel Aviv – A British-Israeli hostage is “in high spirits and on the road to recovery,” her mother has said, during the first public comments made by the relatives of the three women freed from captivity in Gaza on Sunday.
Speaking from Sheba hospital in Tel Aviv where the women are still being evaluated, Mandy Damari said her daughter Emily (28) was recovering well, despite having lost two fingers on her left hand. She thanked those who helped secure Emily’s release “from the bottom of our hearts” and urged people to “keep on fighting for the remaining 94 hostages.”
“There are too many other families waiting to hug their loved ones or bring them back for a proper burial,” she added.
Ms Damari spoke alongside Yamit Ashkenazi, sister of released hostage Doron Steinbrecher, who was also seized with Emily from Kibbutz Kafr Aza on 7 October and freed on Sunday.
Yamit said that Doron (31), a veterinary nurse, was “strong… brave. But the road to rehabilitation is long.”
She read out a message from her sibling Doron, who said: “Go out into the streets. We must carry out all the steps of the deal. Just as I was able to return to my family, everyone should return.”
Meirav Leshem Gonen, the mother of Romi (24), the youngest of the three, who was seized from the Nova music festival, echoed the pleas for all three phases of the ceasefire to continue to allow the return of all the hostages. She warned the Israeli government: “The train has left the station; let the train arrive at the final destination.”
The hospital staff at Sheba have said the women are in a “stable condition,” but no information has yet been provided about their treatment in captivity. The families have repeatedly asked for privacy.
Emily, Doron, and Romi were freed on Sunday as part of a US-, Qatari-, and Egyptian-brokered deal that would see, in the first phase, the release of 33 hostages from Gaza and nearly 2,000 Palestinians from Israeli prisons. On Monday morning, 90 Palestinian prisoners – all women, children, and teenagers – were released from a prison complex in the occupied West Bank to ecstatic crowds.
The deal also provides a much-needed respite for Palestinian civilians in Gaza. There Israel’s unprecedented bombardment has killed over 46,000 people, displaced more than 90 per cent of the two-million-strong population, and reduced swathes of the besieged strip to rubble.
But there are fears that the truce will not last beyond the initial six weeks, as Benjamin Netanyahu faces pressure from far-right members of his ruling coalition to avoid a temporary truce that makes too many concessions.
On Monday, his extreme-right finance minister Bezalel Smotrich threatened to topple the coalition if the truce continued.
“If, God forbid, the war is not resumed, I will bring the government down,” he told reporters.
“I insisted, demanded, and received an unequivocal commitment from the prime minister, the minister of defence, and the rest of my Cabinet colleagues – we will not stop this war a moment before realising its full goals,” he added.
This has worried people in Gaza and the families of the hostages – especially those whose loved ones are not among the 33 due to be released in the first six-week period.
The second phase, which must still be negotiated, aims to end the war and secure the return of all remaining hostages.
Bel Trew is The Independent’s Chief International Correspondent
