Posters of hostages Emily Damari and Romi Gonen, two of the first hostages Hamas said it would release from Gaza, are displayed at Tel Aviv’s Hostage Square, Jan. 16, 2025. (Noam Galai/Getty Images)
(JTA) — The ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war went into effect on Sunday morning as Hamas has named the three hostages that it plans to release on the first day.
As expected, the first three Israelis set for release are civilian women who were abducted on Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas terrorists invaded southern Israel. They are:
- Emily Damari: The only British citizen to remain in Gaza, Damari, 27, was shot on Oct. 7 but seen alive in Gaza by other hostages who returned. She was abducted from Kibbutz Kfar Aza.
- Romi Gonen: Taken hostage from the Nova music festival, Gonen, 24, was shot on Oct. 7 but seen alive in Gaza by other hostages who returned.
- Doron Steinbrecher: Taken hostage from her home at Kibbutz Kfar Aza, Steinbrecher appeared alive in a video released by Hamas in January 2024.
The women have been hostages for 471 days. No official announcement has been made about their condition, but Romi Gonen’s father told an Israeli radio station that he understood that his daughter would be returning alive.
The handover is set for 4 p.m. Israel time. Israeli authorities have prepared to provide medical and psychological treatments to hostages as they return. There are 98 hostages, of whom 33 will be released over six weeks during the first phase of a ceasefire deal.
Separately, Israel announced that it had retrieved the remains of Oron Shaul, a soldier who was killed in the 2014 Gaza war and held hostage since then. Shaul is one of 36 people abducted from Israel who are known to be dead; under the terms of the ceasefire, their bodies would be returned only after Israel fully withdraws from Gaza and reconstruction of the territory begins.
The ceasefire began slightly later than planned because of a delay in announcing the names of the hostages to be returned, which Hamas attributed to “technical difficulties” in communicating within the territory.
It also followed Israel’s Supreme Court rejecting petitions from Israelis who oppose the deal, mostly because of the large number of Palestinian security prisoners, including convicted murderers, who will be released under the agreement.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu faces intense pressure over whether to continue the war after the six-week pause. A crucial right-wing government partner has threatened to exit his coalition if fighting does not resume at that time. But Donald Trump, who is being sworn in Monday as U.S. president, has strongly pressed for a permanent end to the war.
In an extended statement on Saturday, Netanyahu said both Trump and Joe Biden, the outgoing president, had endorsed a resumption in fighting in the future.
Calling the current pause a “temporary ceasefire,” Netanyahu said, “Both President Trump and President Biden have given full backing to Israel’s right to return to the fighting, if Israel reaches the conclusion that the second stage negotiations are ineffectual. I greatly appreciate this.”
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