It was the moment the Israelis longed for. On Sunday afternoon, 471 long days after they were captured by Hamas in the darkest moment in Israeli history, three young hostages made the arduous journey from captivity in Gaza to freedom in their homeland.
The release of the three women — Romi Gonen, Emily Damari and Doron Steinbrecher — marked the beginning of a multi-phase deal that offers an opportunity to end the brutal war in Gaza and hope for freedom for dozens more hostages after more than 15 months of ordeal for them, their families and the people.
But the Israelis’ joy and relief at the release was mixed with anxiety for what the coming weeks would reveal. Israeli officials believe at least half of the remaining 94 hostages are dead. And many doubt that the fragile truce will last long enough for everyone to return.
“There’s this dichotomy between this state of mind where this could be the last day [of life] for her husband or child — and the possibility that that same person could be sleeping in the next room until next week,” says Udi Goren, whose family is awaiting the return of the body of his cousin Tal Haimi, who was killed on October 7 and then taken to Gaza.
“I don’t think words can describe the huge difference between these two emotions.”
For the past 15 months, the fate of the hostages has been etched into the Israeli national consciousness. Their faces from happier times are plastered and re-plastered on buildings and billboards from Haifa to Eilat. Details from their lives fill the daily news bulletins. Rallies demanding government action to secure their release have become weekly events.
But as the clock ticked toward this weekend’s truce, with hopes that at least some would finally be freed, there were reminders of how volatile the situation remains. Missiles from Yemen set off the eerie wail of air raid sirens across the country. In Tel Aviv, a Palestinian stabbed an Israeli before being shot by a bystander.
Meanwhile, Israeli warplanes continued to pound Gaza on Sunday morning, bringing the death toll in the devastated enclave since the deal was announced last week to more than 140, according to Palestinian officials.
“There is a glimmer of hope, but it’s not the light at the end of the tunnel,” said Daria Giladi as she and a friend joined a rally in support of the hostages in downtown Jerusalem on Saturday night.
“You are happy that people are returning home, you are happy that the war will end, even if only for a little while. But there is still a long way to go. Only a third of the hostages should be returned [in the first six-week phase of the deal]. So it’s not enough.”
Even for the relatives of the 33 hostages who are supposed to be freed in the first phase of the deal – when children, women, the sick and the elderly will be freed – the uncertainty is acute.
Sharona Lifschitz’s parents, Yocheved and Oded, lifelong advocates of coexistence with the Palestinians, were both arrested on October 7. Yocheved was released 17 days later. But the family has no idea about Oded’s fate. When Yocheved returned, she told her family that he was dead. But the hostages freed a few weeks later in a ceasefire in November 2023 said they saw him alive.
And so for the past 15 months, the family has waited, hoping against hope that Oded would return safely, while grappling with the enormity of what it would mean for a fragile eight-year-old shot in the wrist during a Hamas attack to have survived so long in Hamas captivity.
“We are all fighting for him with the belief that, until we know otherwise, we want him back. If his destiny and his strength held and he found a way to survive against all odds, we’re very much looking forward to seeing him,” says Lifschitz, her voice evocative.
“[But] he saw the destruction of everything he had fought for. And then it had to be in the hands of the people who caused it [that destruction]. And he had to somehow survive when his health was weak and he was injured. It’s hard to wish that on anyone — let alone your father, whom you love so much.”
For families whose relatives are not expected to be freed until the second and third phases of the deal – when the remaining living male hostages, and then the bodies of those who died, will be returned – the uncertainty is greater.
When a previous seven-day truce and hostage-for-prisoner exchange took place in November 2023, freeing 110 of the 250 hostages originally held, many in Israel hoped that this would spawn new such deals and that the remaining hostages could be freed. return soon too.
But what followed was 14 months of false dawns, as Israel and Hamas repeatedly failed to reach an agreement and the number of hostages alive dwindled steadily. Claims by far-right ministers in Benjamin Netanyahu’s government that they have repeatedly thwarted the deal have enraged relatives of the hostages. And those with relatives were not supposed to be released until stage two or three, fearing that their time might never come.
Among them is Herut Nimrodi, whose then 18-year-old son Tamir was captured in his pajamas, barefoot and without glasses, from his military base near the Erez crossing in the early hours of the Hamas attack.
Nimrodi knows the exact time – 06:49 in the morning – of their last messages, when Tamir contacted her and said that rockets were falling on the base. The family found out it had been confiscated when one of her daughters saw a video on Instagram. But in the months that followed, they had no indication of his condition. In November, they celebrated his 20th birthday without knowing “if he even turned 19“.
“I know my son’s name is not on the list [for release in the first phase]because he is a soldier and we are terrified,” says Nimrodi. “What I’m afraid of is not just that we won’t go to the next stage. But also that [once the first group have been released] lobby [for further releases] it will become much smaller, because there will be fewer hostages, and those are only men.”
There is also a widespread understanding that, even for those who return, returning will only be the first step. Lifschitz says her mother is handling her return from prison “better than most of us.”
But for those who have spent more than 15 months in captivity, the process is likely to be far more difficult. Previously released hostages said that they were kept in cages or in complete darkness, that they were drugged and beaten, and in some cases that they suffered or witnessed sexual abuse.
Hagai Levine, a doctor who works with the Hostage Families Support Forum, said at a press briefing last week that he expects “every aspect [hostages’] physical and mental health will be affected”. “Time is of the essence – recovery will be a long and painful process,” he said.
But for all the anxieties about the challenges ahead, families are desperate for the process to begin. “Everyone in Israel – and of course the family – needs closure. We are a wounded society right now. We are in trauma. We haven’t even started with the post-trauma yet,” says Nimrodi. “We have to heal. And seeing the hostages come back is a healing process for us as a community.”
Lifschitz agrees. “We know that so many hostages are not alive and we will have a lot of funerals and shivas [mourning periods] to sit,” she says. “But at least there will be some kind of closure. we will know. At least we’ll know.”
