Hostages were only told yesterday they were being freed; they knew families were battling for them

Released hostages Emily Damari, Romi Gonen, and Doron Steinbrecher were only told by their captors hours before their release yesterday that they were going home. “We only got the news about our freedom yesterday. We didn’t believe it,” they have said.

According to comments by the three freed hostages approved for publication by the Israeli military censor, and reported by Channel 12 news, some of them did not see daylight for long periods of their captivity and were held underground.

Some of them were kept in humanitarian areas of Gaza for part of their captivity.

They were not held alone, but were separated from others at some point, they have said. When together, they cooked for each other and looked after each other all the time.

Sometimes they got medicines they needed. One of them underwent a medical procedure without anesthetic.

They saw or heard TV and radio some of the time, and knew of the struggle being waged on their behalf and that their families were battling for them, they have said.

Some of them heard broadcasts about what had happened on October 7, 2023, when Hamas invaded and they were abducted. “We understood that our families survived, but we discovered that we had lost a lot of friends,” they were quoted saying.

One of them said, “I didn’t think I’d return. I was sure I would die in Gaza.”

They have said that they were “scared to death” during their transfer from Hamas terrorists to the International Committee of the Red Cross in Gaza City yesterday — both because of the gunmen surrounding them and the Gazan mob.