Mother of freed hostage Romi Gonen says it’s taking time to ‘believe in new reality’ after daughter’s release

Meirav Leshem Gonen, the mother of freed hostage Romi Gonen, says she is “taking a moment to breathe it in and believe in this new reality” after her daughter was released from Hamas captivity yesterday, some 15 months after she was abducted from the Nova music festival during the October 7, 2023, assault.

In a brief post on Facebook, Leshem Gonen also draws attention to the 97 remaining hostages and their families, who she says “need this reality to become true” for them as well.

(There are actually 94 now remaining in captivity in Gaza, 91 of them abducted on October 7, 2023.)

In a second post, published a few hours later, Leshem Gonen says she is currently existing “in an alternate reality, disconnected from the outside world, in which nothing exists but family.”