Speaking at a press conference at the Sheba hospital where the three women are being treated, they gave no details on the conditions in which their relatives had been held for 471 days or on their health.

Romi Gonen, Emily Damari and Doron Steinbrecher were released on Sunday as part of the first round of exchanges that also saw around 90 Palestinian prisoners freed from Israeli jails.

Meirav Leshem Gonen, the mother of Romi Gonen, said: “We got our Romi back, but all families deserve the same outcome, both the living and the dead. Our hearts go out to the other families.”

“We are a people who desire peace but are ready for war when needed,” she added.

Yamit Ashkenazi meanwhile passed on a message from her sister Doron Steinbrecher.

“Everyone needs to return, until the last hostage comes home. Just as I was fortunate to return to my family, so must everyone else.”

Mandy Damari, the mother of British-Israeli Emily Damari, said her daughter was “in high spirits”.

She called for all the hostages to be released and for humanitarian aid that was going into the Gaza Strip to also go to the remaining captives.

Of the 251 hostages taken during Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, 91 remain in Gaza, including 34 the military has said are dead.

A further two hostages who are presumed alive have been held in Gaza since 2014 and 2015 respectively, as has the body of a soldier killed in the 2014 Gaza war. The three are also due to be released as part of the deal.

Before the press conference, the Israeli military released new footage of the moment the three freed hostages were reunited with their mothers at an Israeli military base.

In the footage, the three women are seen embracing their mothers tightly as they meet for the first time after their release.

© 2025 AFP