Eitan Gonen, father of Romi who is due to be released this evening (Sunday) from Hamas captivity, opened an interview with Kan News together with his wife Meital, with the "Shehechiyanu" blessing (said upon miraculous events) upon the release of their daughter.
Eitan said emotionally: "We have waited for this for over 11,000 hours, 471 days, and perhaps in the next 24 hours we will finally be able to hug Romi and she will hug us."
He added: "I have no words to describe the feeling; it is like giving birth after you have been waiting for so long. This is the peak of excitement, the people of Israel are waiting for Romi and the other hostages."
[קישורים:4:רומי גונן]
Gonen, 24, from Kfar Vradim, was kidnapped from the Nova party in Re'im. At 10:15 a.m. on October 7, she called her mother, Meirav Leshem-Gonen, on the phone, and told her that she had been shot.
In the chilling recording, shots are heard, and Merav says to her daughter: "Romi, I'm with you. I'm with you and everything will be fine. We'll go to the hospital and everything will be fine and you'll feel better. You're not alone, my beauty, you're with me." Then the terrorists are heard shouting in Arabic, and the conversation is disconnected.
Two more hostages are expected to be released this evening, Emily Damari, 28, from Kfar Aza, who is also a British citizen. In an interview with the BBC last month, her mother Mandy expressed grave concern that her daughter was no longer alive. "I'm desperate for a sign of life," she said.
Doron Steinbrecher, 31, from Kfar Aza, worked as a veterinary nurse, and was taken hostage from her home in the youth neighborhood of Kfar Gaza on October 7. She was one of the three hostages who appeared in a video released by Hamas on January 26, along with Karina Ariev and Daniella Gilboa.