Courtesy of JNS. Photo credit: Israel Defense Forces Spokesperson’s Unit
Former hostage Emily Damari is reunited with her mother, on Jan. 19, 2025
(JNS) — Emily Damari, who was freed on Sunday following 471 days in Hamas captivity, took to social media on Monday for the first time since being taken captive on Oct. 7, 2023, thanking her family, friends and God for her release.
“I’m loving, loving, loving. Thanks be to God. Thanks to my family, to Oreli, to the best friends I have in this world. I have returned to life, my loved ones,” she wrote.
“I have only managed to see just a tiny bit of everything, and you have exploded my heart from emotion. Thank you, thank you, thank you. I am the happiest person in the world, just to be,” she added.
At the end of her post, she added an “I love you” emoji. Damari lost two of her fingers during her Oct. 7 kidnapping.
Damari, 28, and the other two released hostages Romi Gonen, 24, and Doron Steinbrecher, 31, were handed over by Hamas to representatives of the International Committee of the Red Cross in the Gaza Strip on Sunday as part of a ceasefire agreement with the terrorist group.
Following an initial medical examination at the Israel Defense Forces reception point near the Gaza border and their subsequent transfer to a hospital via helicopter, Tel Hashomer General Hospital Director Dr. Yael Frenkel Nir told local media that the women’s physical condition was good enough to allow them to focus on reuniting with family members.
Hundreds of exhilarated Israelis were awaiting the return of the three hostages outside the hospital as the helicopters touched down.
Damari’s mother Mandy, a dual Israeli-U.K. national, shortly after her daughter’s return thanked “everyone who never stopped fighting for Emily throughout this horrendous ordeal, and who never stopped saying her name. In Israel, Britain, the United States and around the world.
“While Emily’s nightmare in Gaza is over, for too many other families the impossible wait continues. Every last hostage must be released, and humanitarian aid must be provided to the hostages who are still waiting to come home.”
Israel has said that 25 of the 33 people on the list of hostages to be returned in the first stage of the ceasefire deal are still alive. Ninety-four hostages are still being held in Gaza, at least one-third of whom are believed to be dead.
