Romi Gonen was named as one of the three female hostages Hamas is set to release on Sunday as part of the hostage-ceasefire deal which will see a total of 33 hostages released in its first phase.
Romi was 23 when Hamas abducted her from the Nova Music Festival after being shot by the invading terrorists on October 7 2023. Now, over a year later, she is expected to be freed in a hostage-ceasefire deal.
At the time of her abduction, Romi was on the phone with her mother Meirav as she attempted to flee the site in a vehicle with her friends.
Ben Shimoni, who has garnered the nickname the ‘Angel of Nova’, is thought to have returned to the site of the music festival to save Romi and other partygoers. Shimoni was murdered by terrorists after successfully saving nine people after driving back to the festival twice.
Her final words were “They shot me, Mom and I’m bleeding. Everyone in the car is bleeding.”
The car carrying the group of friends was later discovered empty and Romi’s phone was tracked to Gaza.
A recording of the call, obtained exclusively by the Daily Mail, revealed terrorists discussing whether to execute or abduct her.
Signs of life
A hostage released in November told the family Romi was alive but in bad condition. “Her hand does not function. Her fingers are barely moving and are changing colours – and that was 10 weeks ago,” the family told the Mail.
Maureen Leshem, a Canadian cousin of Romi Gonen, told the National Post on Thursday, “We have not heard any news about Romi since last November when we learned she was alive and in desperate need of medical attention for a gunshot wound to her hand.”
“Any time there were talks of a ceasefire, I actually never entertained them. At the very, very beginning I did, but then, those blows, that emotional whiplash — it’s going to happen, it’s going to happen, and it’s not happening. It’s just a killer. And I don’t know if it’s survival, or what, but I just chose not to entertain them. And, this time, I don’t know,” Leshem said. “For me, the fact that president-elect Donald Trump is behind it, I think is what’s driving my optimism.”
Romi’s father Eitan told Israel’s Channel 12 on his daughter’s birthday that she is “a magical girl. She’s all heart, all love…. a justice warrior.”
Israelis were asked to do a good deed to honor Romi’s August 18 birthday.
“It was very, very hard for me to enter Romi’s room for 47 days. And now we are in this room and emotions are very, very high,” Eitan told Reuters. “But we are very optimistic that Romi will come back home. We are even convinced that Romi will be back home, alive.”
The family’s story gained public attention when Romi’s sister Yarden was treated in a way many deemed disrespectful while trying to speak about her sister to former The Hill political commentator Briahna Joy Gray.
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