Freed hostages Emily, Romi, and Doron leave hospital a week after return from Gaza

Three women released on first day of hostage-ceasefire deal discharged from Sheba Medical Center after initial tests, one day after four more hostages freed from Gaza

Released hostages (L-R) Doron Steinbrecher, Emily Damari and Romi Gonen reunite with their mothers shortly after returning to Israel after 471 days in Hamas captivity in Gaza, January 19, 2025. (IDF)
Released hostages (L-R) Doron Steinbrecher, Emily Damari and Romi Gonen reunite with their mothers shortly after returning to Israel after 471 days in Hamas captivity in Gaza, January 19, 2025. (IDF)

The three Israeli women released from Hamas captivity a week ago at the start of the ongoing ceasefire have been discharged from the hospital after an initial series of checks, the Sheba Medical Center said on Sunday.

The Tel Aviv-area hospital “will continue to accompany them and their families,” it said in a statement. “We will remain prepared and at the ready, until the last of the hostages returns.”

The Hamas terror group released the three civilian hostages — Romi Gonen, 24, Emily Damari, 28, and Doron Steinbrecher, 31 — last Sunday as part of a hostage-ceasefire deal with Israel.

Upon their return, the three were deemed to be in “stable and overall good condition,” as they underwent extensive checks and care.

Following their release from the hospital, they were expected to arrive at the Kfar Maccabiah hotel and convention center complex outside Tel Aviv for further care alongside their families, the Ynet news site reported.

Roni Steinbrecher, Doron Steinbrecher’s father, said, “We expect that we, and especially Doron, have a long road ahead of us, but alongside that we will continue to work for the speedy release of the rest of the hostages,” the site reported.

Hamas terrorists hand over hostages Doron Steinbrecher (center, in pink sweater), Emily Damari and Romi Gonen, abducted during the October 7, 2023, massacre in southern Israel, to members of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), as part of a ceasefire and a hostages-prisoners deal, in Gaza City, January 19, 2025 (Reuters)

The three women spent 471 days in captivity, having been taken to Gaza as hostages on October 7, 2023, during Hamas’s cross-border onslaught in Israel, in which terrorists killed some 1,200 people and took 251 people captive.

Gonen was abducted from the Nova music festival, while Damari and Steinbrecher were taken from their homes in Kibbutz Kfar Aza.

The first, 42-day phase of the deal commits Hamas to releasing 33 so-called “humanitarian” hostages, living and dead, and Israel to releasing up to 1,904 Palestinian security prisoners, with fighting stopped in the Gaza Strip.

On Saturday, the terror group released another four of the first 33 hostages — surveillance soldiers Karina Ariev, Daniella Gilboa, Naama Levy, and Liri Albag. Israel later freed 200 Palestinian security prisoners, including dozens serving life sentences for murder and terror.

Ninety hostages remain in Gaza, including the bodies of at least 34 confirmed dead by the IDF.

Most Popular
read more: