Former Hostage Romi Gonen Leaves Hospital after Six Months of Rehabilitation

“On 7.10 [October 7], I was brutally kidnapped to the Gaza Strip. On 10.7 [July 10], I’m being discharged from the hospital after a very difficult period,” continued the former Hamas hostage. “Suffering from pain, undergoing surgeries, getting up and falling down again and again.” 

Gonen revealed that she would soon return to the hospital for a third surgery on the gunshot wound she sustained in her right arm when Hamas-led terrorists shot her at the Nova festival on October 7. 

“The people of Israel were with me every moment—whether it was the friends I met during rehabilitation or the food that was always handed out,” the ex-captive said. “Thank you—truly, it’s not taken for granted.” 

Gonen wrote that her release came with “mixed emotions of sadness and joy” as 50 hostages are still held in the Strip. 

“It’s hard to grasp how many events and experiences—good and bad—we go through, while for them in the tunnels, time stands still,” she said, adding: “I pray that we can once again be a united and whole people.” 

Gonen, Emily Damari and Doron Steinbrecher were handed over by Hamas terrorists to the International Committee of the Red Cross in Gaza on January 19, as part of the ceasefire deal with the terrorist group. 

Following a physical examination and reunion with their mothers at the Israel Defense Forces reception point near the border, the three female ex-hostages were transferred to Sheba Medical Center by helicopter. 

In a Channel 12 report vetted by the IDF military censor and approved by the captives’ families published on January 20, the three women recalled being held in underground facilities for 471 days with little medical attention, tremendous uncertainty, and, at times, despair.