Doron Steinbrcher promised that he would never wear the squad again when he made his first public comments in a video after being freed for more than 15 months in captivity of Hamas in Gaza.
A year ago, he had appeared in a hostage video made by his kidnappers who wore a pale pink sweatshirt. When the Palestinian militant group Hamas published his last month, he was dressed in a brilliant Magenta track dress and seemed pale.
Sitting in front of a camera again brought her back to the difficult moments in which her kidnappers filmed her in Gaza, said Mrs. Steinbricher, 31 years old, in the video, sometimes composed and smiling.
“This time, I am comfortably sitting on a sofa with my family looking at me in a warm and pleasant place,” he said. Trying to communicate that he had not been broken, he said it was important for her to show everyone that “I’m fine”.
While families and sympathizers at home and abroad stubbornly made a campaign for the release of Israeli hostages, most people knew them only as faces that fixed from the posters. Now, with 16 Israelis published from January 19th with the cessation agreement with Hamas, those obsessed faces are creating on video clips, social media posts and declarations of relatives who provide glimpses of the joy and relief of freedom, as well as Tools of the torment they have endured.
The short messages they sent were mainly expressions of gratitude to all those who worked for their release and not to not give up until the last hostage is freed.
The urgency of that message became even clearer on Saturday, when many Israelis were shocked to see the hematic condition of the last three hostages that have been released: Eli Sharabi, 52; O Levy, 34; and Ohad Ben-me, 56.
Some relatives said that the hostages issued previously were often deprived of food, they underwent a serious weight loss and muscle mass and rarely saw sunlight. The members of the family said that some hostages had at least an occasional access to the radio or television and listened or seen their relatives make a campaign for their release, which helped them survive.
Colonel Avi Benov, doctor and deputy chief of the medical body of the Israeli army, told journalists that many of the female hostages recently released had spent the last eight months underground in the Hamas tunnels in Gaza. Some hostages that were released in November 2023 described the suffocating humidity in the tunnels that made it difficult to breathe.
Colonel Benov said that the first seven women recently released suffered from “slight hunger”, while some still had splinters in their bodies for injuries suffered on October 7, 2023.
That was the day when Hamas conducted an attack from Gaza on southern Israel which ended with around 1,200 deaths and about 250 people reported in Gaza as hostages. The attack lit a 15 -month war, with the offensive of Israel in Gaza who killed tens of thousands of Palestinians and devastating the territory.
Of the approximately 250 prisoners, the scores were released during a week of a week later of that year, while some were killed in captivity. More than 70 hostages have not yet been returned, including at least 35 which are believed to have died, according to the Israeli government.
25 hostages are expected to be released in total, together with the other eight, during the ceased the initial fire of six weeks that entered into force last month.
They are exchanged with about 1,500 Palestinian prisoners, some of them sentenced for killing Israelis. The Palestinians released, many of whom had been detained without accusation, claim to have faced harsh conditions in Israeli prisons and in detention structures.
Some of the Israeli hostages had been forced to appear in the videos filmed by their kidnappers in Gaza – a practice that the rights groups have denounced a dehuman treatment that could be equivalent to a war crime. Israeli officials have defined these a form of psychological war.
A few months ago, the military wing of Hamas released a declaration claiming that an hostage had been killed and released apparently blurred images that showed a body wrapped in a sweat. A prominent blow showed an identical tattoo to one belonging to Daniella Gilboa, one of the numerous female soldiers captured by a small military base near the Gaza border.
But Mrs. Gilboa, 20 years old, was freed on January 25th. Days later, he sang at a party that marked the unloading of the army vigil from the Beilinson hospital near Tel Aviv.
He reflected on his ordeal in a long Instagram post on February 2nd. He said that his faith and observance of Jewish rituals had made him pass. He thanked his supporters for not believing the voices that had been killed in Gaza.
Liri Albag, another of the blind, celebrated his twentieth birthday as he recovered in the hospital.
Mrs. Steinbrcher was kidnapped from her home to Kfar Aza, a rural community near the border with Gaza.
In the video he released, his appearance is abruptly contrasted with the hostage videos made when he was pale, with blonde hair pulled back in a braid. Her hair was now dark and well welcomed in a bob along the shoulder, and dressed in black, wearing long necklaces, a dog tag and a yellow pin in solidarity with the hostages. He said he was no longer that person in Gaza’s videos.
“I’m Doron. I am 31 years old. I’m no longer in captivity of Hamas and I’m at home, “he said.
The hostages recently released have remained largely protected by the middle of the media and so far have not given interviews. Medical and mental health professionals say that preserving their privacy is essential for the long healing process.
The filming issued by the soldiers of the emotional meetings of the hostages with tight family members gave an idea of the process that surrounds their return.
“Dad, I’m back alive!” Another liberated hostage, Romi Gonen, 24, shouted in a cell phone after being brought together with his mother on January 19th.
Experts say that long captivity has caused physical and psychological damage and that full rehabilitation will take time.
“We are traveling a very slow path,” said Prof. Noa Eliakim-Raz, the head of the repatriated department at the Beilinson Hospital. “Of course, let’s see ups and low. Every day is different. “
Some of the liberated hostages have returned with injuries from the assault of 7 October. Emily Damari, 28, lost two fingers after being hit in the hand and was also hit in the leg.
He is a fan of the Israeli football team Maccabi Tel Aviv, and in one of their games last Monday, a video message from Mrs. Damari was projected on a huge screen. He thanked the players, the direction and supporters for having fought for his freedom.
Mrs. Gonen still suffers from an arm injury and will need a complicated surgery, said her mother.
Gadi Moses, 80 years old, an agronomist who was kidnapped by his home in Nir Oz, a village near the border with Gaza, was released on January 30, appearing Gaunt. As soon as he returned to Israel, he committed himself to doing everything possible to rehabilitate his devastated community.
His nephew, Efrat Machikawa, later told Journalists that Mr. Moses had been kept above ground for all his imprisonment, but was often moved.
Closed alone in the rooms, he said, he was exercised counting the steps and walking up to six miles a day, he kept his mind active with calculations and other techniques. And it remained positive.
When he met him for the first time in the hospital, he reassured her: “I am alive. I’m normal! “
“Solitude becomes an enemy,” said Mrs. Machikawa. “He managed to create a routine that kept his healthcare.”