Hostages transferred to Israel met with their families
The first three hostages handed over by the Palestinian movement Hamas have returned to Israel. This was reported on January 19 in the press service of the Israeli army.
"The three freed hostages have just arrived at the hospital," - specified in the message in the Telegram-channel.
According to the Israeli government, the released hostages have already met with their families. In addition, the girls Romy Gonen, Emily Damari and Doron Steinbrecher were taken to the medical center "Sheba" in the suburbs of Tel Aviv.
Journalist Nikita Kulukhin told Izvestia that hundreds of Israelis came to the hospital to greet the girls. He added that Emily Damari lost two fingers in captivity. According to him, all the girls will have to undergo medical examinations.
"They were one year, three months and almost two weeks in Hamas captivity with almost no water, food or air. And now they have returned home, many had already lost hope, but it happened," Kulukhin emphasized.
Hamas handed over Gonen, Damari and Steinbrecher to representatives of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) earlier in the day. The organization soon handed over the three hostages to Israeli forces in the Gaza Strip.
The Gaza ceasefire agreement was announced on January 15. The next day, the Defense Ministry and the IDF began preparations to implement the agreement. In particular, the State Defense Ministry's Directorate of Checkpoints and the Design Department were involved in the implementation of the deal in order to speed up logistics.
Theceasefire regime in the Gaza Strip began on the morning of January 19, as agreed upon by both sides and mediators. The Israeli government approved the agreement with the Palestinian Hamas movement on January 17 following a six-hour meeting.
The situation in the Middle East escalated on the morning of October 7, 2023, when Hamas launched a massive rocket attack on Israel from the Gaza Strip. On the same day, Israel began retaliatory strikes.
