Former Hamas hostage Romi Gonen was released from the hospital on Thursday after undergoing almost six months of rehabilitation and surgeries for wounds sustained in the Hamas-led terrorist attacks in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.
Gonen, who was released by Hamas on Jan. 19 as part of the hostages-for-ceasefire agreement with the terrorist group, underwent two operations during her stay at Sheba Medical Center at Tel HaShomer, Ramat Gan.
“Today, I am being discharged and taking another step toward my freedom,” Gonen wrote in a Hebrew Instagram post on Thursday.
“On 7.10 [Oct. 7], I was brutally kidnapped to the Gaza Strip. On 10.7 [July 10], I’m being discharged from the hospital after a very difficult period,” continued the former Hamas hostage. “Suffering from pain, undergoing surgeries, getting up and falling down again and again.
5 months after being freed from Hamas captivity, survivor Romi Gonen is finally free from the hospital 🎉 pic.twitter.com/PQgkbPpHRo
— Eylon Levy (@EylonALevy) July 10, 2025
Gonen revealed that she would soon return to the hospital for a third surgery on the gunshot wound she sustained in her right arm when Hamas-led terrorists shot her at the Nova festival on Oct. 7.
“The people of Israel were with me every moment—whether it was the friends I met during rehabilitation or the food that was always handed out,” the ex-captive said. “Thank you—truly, it’s not taken for granted.”
Gonen wrote that her release came with “mixed emotions of sadness and joy” as 50 hostages are still held in the Strip.
“It’s hard to grasp how many events and experiences—good and bad—we go through, while for them in the tunnels, time stands still,” she said, adding: “I pray that we can once again be a united and whole people.”
Gonen, Emily Damari and Doron Steinbrecher were handed over by Hamas terrorists to the International Committee of the Red Cross in Gaza on Jan. 19, as part of the ceasefire deal with the terrorist group.
Following a physical examination and reunion with their mothers at the Israel Defense Forces reception point near the border, the three female ex-hostages were transferred to Sheba Medical Center by helicopter.
In a Channel 12 report vetted by the IDF military censor and approved by the captives’ families published on Jan. 20, the three women recalled being held in underground facilities for 471 days with little medical attention, tremendous uncertainty, and, at times, despair.
