A mix of joy, hope, sorrow and song awaited released hostages outside the hospital
Friends, well-wishers, patients watch excitedly as Romi Gonen, Emily Damari and Doron Steinbrecher arrive at Sheba Medical Center: ‘The people of Israel love you’
Shoshanna Solomon was The Times of Israel's Startups and Business reporter

As the ambulances and security cars with the newly released trio of Israeli hostages approached the plaza at the entrance to Sheba Medical Center on Sunday evening, the crowd that had gathered along with waiting journalists cheered and whooped.
Security officers at the hospital, on the outskirts of Tel Aviv, blocked traffic. When the convoy neared, one of them filmed events with his smartphone, and patients from a floor above opened the windows to get a look.
Twenty-year-old Avishag Gadot, who was there with a group of young women doing national service, broke out in song, waving a flag she had been wearing on her back. “Am Israel Chai,” they sang. “The people of Israel live.”
Carrying a poster that said “The people of Israel love you,” Gadot noted that her excitement was also tinged with sadness “for those who are not back yet and for the soldiers that have died.”
The three returning hostages — Romi Gonen, 24, Emily Damari, 28, and Doron Steinbrecher, 31 — were reunited at the hospital with family members, embracing and crying and laughing at the same time, and were checked by medical staff.
The hospital provided them with clothes and toiletries, and specially prepared meals. Each has their own room and will remain at the hospital for as long as necessary.

“It is joy mingled with sadness,” said Rivka Mizrahi of Tel Aviv. She was standing with her son, a hospital patient, outside the cordoned area reserved for journalists before the hostages arrived. “I am happy they are returning, but I am sorry about all the soldiers who were killed. It is important they did not die in vain.”
Similarly, Liat Lahat, whose 16-year-old daughter is a patient, said she felt “joy mixed with sorrow.” All the children in the ward are excited about the hostages’ return, she said. “My daughter has written and recorded songs for the hostages.”

Outside, in the plaza, David, an IDF officer wounded in the current war, waited for the hostages in his wheelchair together with his fiancé and his brother. He said he has spent months recovering in the hospital, and many more months of hard recovery await him.
“The army played a very significant part in the return of the hostages,” he said. “We did everything to succeed, and I am happy it is happening.”
Hospital director Dr. Yael Frankel-Nir said later Sunday that the physical condition of the released hostages was good enough to allow them to focus on reuniting with family members. The hospital team was able to “postpone delving into medical issues for a few hours,” she said.
The agreed-upon first phase of the ceasefire deal is meant to see Hamas release 33 “humanitarian” hostages over 42 days — children, women, female soldiers, the elderly and the sick. Israel believes most but not all of the 33 are alive. The next part of the first phase is slated to see four more hostages freed on Saturday.
Israel in phase one will release up to 1,904 Palestinian prisoners and detainees, including several serving multiple life sentences for deadly terror attacks and murder.