Freed Israeli Hostage: I've 'Returned to Life'

One of the Israeli hostages freed on the first day of the Gaza ceasefire said Monday in her first comments since being released that she has "returned to life." Emily Damari, 28, was one of three hostages freed Sunday after 471 days in captivity, reports the AP. Officials at a hospital that received them said their condition was stable. In an Instagram story, Damari thanked her family and the large protest movement that advocated for the hostages' release. "Thank you thank you thank you I'm the happiest in the world," she said.

Damari, a dual Israeli-British citizen, returned from captivity with a bandage on one hand and authorities said she had lost two fingers during Hamas' attack on Oct. 7, 2023. As she arrived at a hospital on Sunday, she waved at a crowd and footage later showed her joyfully reuniting with her family. Her mother, Mandy Damari, said later that Damari was "doing much better than any of us could ever have anticipated." The three Israeli hostages left Hamas captivity on Sunday and returned to Israel, and dozens of Palestinian prisoners walked free from Israeli jail, leaving both Israelis and Palestinians torn between celebration and trepidation as the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas took hold.

Meanwhile, the mother of another of the freed hostages is vowing to keep fighting for the return of all the others. Merav Leshem Gonen's daughter, Romi, 24, was kidnapped from the Nova music festival in Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. Since then, Leshem Gonen has emerged as one of the loudest voices advocating for the return of the hostages, appearing nearly daily on Israeli news programs and traveling abroad. "We are in an alternate reality in these hours, shutting out the outside world, a time in which there is nothing but family," she posted on Facebook Monday, after reuniting with her daughter Sunday near the Gaza border. All three women released Sunday are expected to stay hospitalized for several days. "It will take me, us, a moment to breathe her in, and to believe this reality that we have brought about together," Leshem Gonen wrote. "I promise I'll be back."