(6 Feb 2025)
RESTRICTIONS SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Tel Aviv, Israel – 5 February 2025
1. Merav Leshem Gonen, mother of the released hostage Romi Gonen, walking into room
2. SOUNDBITE (English) Meirav Leshem Gonen, mother of released hostage Romi Gonen: ++STARTS ON PREVIOUS SHOT++
“It’s much easier to get up in the morning since I know my daughter is here. Still, there is a huge cloud above our head because there are still 79 hostages still held by Hamas. And since now I know some, a little bit of what they are going through, I know to say even more urgently that we must take them out, the ones that are still alive, that are suffering, and also the bodies of those who were murdered.”
3. Close up of Leshem Gonen’s hands
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Meirav Leshem Gonen, mother of released hostage Romi Gonen:++STARTS ON PREVIOUS SHOT++
"But I can tell you that when she came back, she was, her skin was gray because she didn’t see sun at all, almost at all, all those months she was in there held by Hamas. They were starved. Some of the time when they didn’t, when the terrorists didn’t have food, they also didn’t have food. But sometimes, a lot of the time terrorists had food, and they hid it from the girls, so they didn’t receive food, not enough food. She lost ten kilos.”
5. Mid of Leshem Gonen
STORYLINE:
For the last two and a-half weeks, Meirav Leshem Gonen has been able to wake up in the morning knowing that her daughter is safe after 15 months of captivity in Gaza.
Her daughter, Romi Gonen, was among the first hostages to be released from Gaza in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners as part of the recent ceasefire agreement – a long and uncertain process aimed at eventually ending the Israel-Hamas war.
After 15 months of devastating war sparked by Hamas’ October 7, 2023, attack, Hamas and Israel agreed to a ceasefire deal last month.
Hamas militants killed about 1,200 people and took around 250 hostages during the attack. Around 80 remain in Gaza and about half are presumed by Israel to be dead.
More than 46,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants, but says more than half the dead are women and children.
The first stage of the ceasefire calls for a lull in fighting, the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners held by Israel and an increase in humanitarian aid for Gaza.
Another three hostages are expected to be released on Saturday.
The families of the hostages and their supporters have waged a tireless campaign in Israel and abroad to keep public attention on their loved ones and secure their release.
Romi Gonen, 24, who was released on January 20, the first day of the ceasefire, will need a complex surgery and lengthy physical therapy for an untreated hand wound she suffered during the Hamas attack, according to her mother, Meirav Leshem Gonen.
While doctors said Gonen’s condition was stable when she returned, her mother said her skin was gray after being kept out of sunlight for nearly her entire captivity.
Leshem Gonen said her daughter lost 10 kilograms (22 pounds), a fifth of her body weight, and was often deprived of food by her captors, even when they had food to share.
When she was freed, Gonen had lost the ability to recognize hunger, and didn’t want to eat at all, her mother said, adding that it was more than two weeks before she finally asked for something specific to eat.
AP video shot by Ami Bentov
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