Ramat Gan, Israel (AP) – For more than 470 days, Eitan Gonen publicly begged his daughter to stay alive while he is imprisonment in Hamas. He didn't know if she would hear him, but he ended every interview he gave with the same hopeful message: Romi comes home alive.
When he finally spoke to his daughter for the first time in 15 months after she and two other women were liberated on January 19, he received his answer.
“She said,” Daddy, I came home alive, “Eitan Goonen told The Associated Press on Tuesday in his first interview with an international news exit since her release.
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“I know my interview when Romi gave a lot of power, a lot of hope, something to hold on,” he said.
Romi Zonen, 24, was one of the first hostages to be liberated from Gaza and one of the seven women released so far in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners as part of the ceasefiring -the Fire, a long and uncertain process -oriented process In the end of the war. About 250 people were abducted during Hamas' 7 October 2023, attacks caused by the war. About 90 hostages remain in Gaza, although it is assumed that at least one third of them are dead.
During the first phase of the ceasefish -Fires, Hamas agreed to gradually release 33 hostages in exchange for Israel who freed nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners. Six hostages are expected to be released this week in exchange for hundreds of prisoners.
Israel has prepared for the hostages to return, with the expectation that many people would probably have to do with life -threatening health problems or other physical and psychological problems after more than a year in captivity. This week Dr. Ami Benov, who works with the hostages, reporters that the women were in poor physical condition and would get a long -term recovery process because they suffer from “mild hunger” and vitamin deficiencies.
Sitting in a complex in Central Israel where his daughter and some of the other liberated hostages remain, Eitan Gonen would not comment on Romi's health, but said there is a long way ahead.
“The rehabilitation status has just begun,” he said. Because she has spent so long in captivity, under pressure, it does not put pressure on her to speak. Instead, they try to give her autonomy and control and let her take things at her own pace, he said.
Just like many others, Romi was captured at the Nova Music Festival. That morning her sister and mother, Merav Leshem, spent almost five hours talking to Romi while militants commit the festival site. Romi told her family that she would try to hide in the bushes, because the roads are hidden with abandoned cars that made escape impossible.
For almost two months her family had no idea if she was dead. They only heard that she lived from other hostages who were liberated a month after the attack -the one -week -fired one -week, Eitan said Gonen.
He praised the power of his daughter and said that she partially survived by learning Arabic, because it was the only way to communicate with her abductors.
“People will do everything to survive. Something. And because the terrorists speak no other language other than Arabic, she had no chance to communicate with them – to learn to learn their language, “he said, and noticed that she sometimes even spoke since liberated, probably out of habit .
Something else that helped her to stay alive was the support of other hostages, Eitan said Gonen. Romi was held with Emily Damari for a period of time, a British-Israeli hostage agent who was released with her. “I believe that God has set it up in one way or another that Emily and Romi had survived each other. … it's a dynamic duo, “he said.
Other released hostages gave similar feelings about their own time in captivity. Israeli soldier Name -Levy, which was released on Saturday, wrote in an Instagram post that, after having spent 50 days, she got strength when she was reunited with other abducted soldiers.
Hostages with someone can offer strength through a shared fight to survive in the light of unimaginable adversity, Dr. Einat Yehene, a psychologist who specializes in trauma and loss and that is head of rehabilitation on the High Families Forum.
Although he finally got his daughter back, Eitan Gonen still urges the Israeli government to keep working to take all remaining hostages home. And with the families of hostages, he urges to continue to give interviews in all languages and media, to keep the pressure and to let their relatives know that they have not forgotten.
But he focuses on time with his daughter.
“I just enjoy being with her, even in silence, touching, hugging, keeping an eye on her,” he said. “I missed it so much.”
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Associated Press Reporter Melanie Lidman in Tel Aviv contributed to this report.
