RAMAT GAN, Israel — For greater than 470 days, Eitan Gonen publicly pleaded together with his daughter to remain alive whereas in Hamas captivity. He did not know if she would hear him, however he ended each interview he gave with the identical hopeful message: Romi is coming dwelling alive.
When he lastly received to talk to his daughter for the primary time in 15 months after she and two different ladies had been freed Jan. 19, he received his reply.
“She mentioned, ’Dad, I got here dwelling alive,’” Eitan Gonen instructed The Related Press on Tuesday in his first interview with a world information outlet since her launch.
“I do know that my interview again then gave Romi numerous energy, numerous hope, one thing to cling on,” he mentioned.
Romi Gonen, 24, was among the many first hostages to be free of Gaza and one in all seven ladies to this point launched in change for a whole lot of Palestinian prisoners as a part of the ceasefire, an extended and unsure course of aimed toward ultimately ending the conflict. Some 250 folks had been kidnapped throughout Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, assault that triggered the conflict. About 90 hostages stay in Gaza, though at the least a 3rd of them are believed to be useless.
Throughout the ceasefire’s first section, Hamas agreed to regularly launch 33 hostages in change for Israel releasing practically 2,000 Palestinian prisoners. Six extra hostages are anticipated to be launched this week in change for a whole lot of prisoners.
Israel has been getting ready for the hostages to return, with the expectation that after greater than a 12 months in captivity, many would doubtless be coping with life-threatening well being points or different bodily and psychological issues. This week, Dr. Ami Benov, who’s working with the hostages, instructed reporters that the ladies had been in poor bodily situation and would face a prolonged restoration course of, as they suffered from “gentle hunger” and vitamin deficiencies.
Sitting in a posh in central Israel the place his daughter and a few of the different freed hostages are staying, Eitan Gonen would not touch upon Romi’s well being however mentioned there is a lengthy street forward.
“The rehabilitation standing simply began,” he mentioned. As a result of she spent so lengthy in captivity, the household is not pressuring her to talk. As a substitute, they’re attempting to provide her autonomy and management, and to let her take issues at her personal tempo, he mentioned.
Like many others, Romi was taken captive on the Nova music pageant. That morning, her sister and mom, Merav Leshem Gonen, spent practically 5 hours chatting with Romi as militants marauded via the pageant grounds. Romi instructed her household that she would attempt to disguise within the bushes, because the roads being clogged with deserted automobiles made escape not possible.
For practically two months, her household had no thought if she was useless. They solely discovered she was alive from different hostages who had been freed throughout a weeklong ceasefire a month after the assault, Eitan Gonen mentioned.
Praising his daughter’s energy, he mentioned she survived partially by studying Arabic, because it was the one strategy to talk together with her captors.
“Human beings will do something to outlive. Something. And because the terrorists don’t converse another language aside from Arabic, she didn’t have any likelihood with a view to talk with them — to begin studying their language,” he mentioned, noting that she has even spoken it at occasions since being freed, doubtless out of behavior.
One thing else that helped her keep alive was the help from different hostages, Eitan Gonen mentioned. For a interval, Romi was held with Emily Damari, a British-Israeli hostage who was launched alongside together with her. “I imagine God set it up by some means that Emily and Romi … had one another to outlive. … It’s a dynamic duo,” he mentioned.
Different launched hostages expressed comparable sentiments about their very own time in captivity. Israeli soldier Naama Levy, who was launched Saturday, wrote in an Instagram put up that after spending 50 days principally alone, she was given energy when she was reunited with different kidnapped troopers.
Being held hostage with somebody can present energy via a shared struggle for survival within the face of unimaginable adversity, mentioned Dr. Einat Yehene, a psychologist who focuses on trauma and loss and who’s head of rehabilitation on the Hostages Households Discussion board.
Despite the fact that he lastly received his daughter again, Eitan Gonen continues to be urging the Israeli authorities to maintain working to deliver dwelling all the remaining hostages. And he urges the households of hostages to maintain giving interviews in all languages and mediums, to keep up the strain and let their kin know they have not been forgotten.
However he is principally specializing in spending time together with his daughter.
“I simply take pleasure in being together with her even in silence, touching, hugging, watching her,” he mentioned. “I missed it a lot.”
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Related Press reporter Melanie Lidman in Tel Aviv contributed to this report.
