First there were three. And now another four

When I wrote last week I was under the very-optimistic illusion that, with the ceasefire, 33 hostages would be released. The reality is that three women were released last week and four more yesterday. Which is incredible, wonderful, amazing and also such a punch in the emotional gut. The rest will be released in dribs and drabs.

Focusing on the good, here are the incredible women who, somehow, survived being held hostage for over 460 days....

Emily Damari (28), Doron Steinbrecher (31), and Romi Gonen (24)

Released yesterday were Karina Ariev (20), Daniella Gilboa (20), Naama Levy (20), and Liri Albag (19). They were all soldiers working as unarmed "lookouts" on the Gaza border (we'll leave for another time that the lookouts for months had been telling their supervisors that Hamas was clearly planning a big attack). Liri had just started her military service on October 6.... 

I want to share with you a tiny bit about one of the former hostages. British-Israeli Emily Damari lived in Kibbutz Kfar Aza. She was one of 37 of the "young people' on that Kibbutz. 11 of them were murdered on October 7 and seven were kidnapped to Gaza. Emily's dog was shot and, as she comforted Choocha as he was dying, she was shot in the leg and also the hand, losing two fingers. Emily somehow survived 471 days as a hostage. When told she was going to be released, she asked that American-Israeli Keith Siegel be released in her stead. (I'm convinced Hamas will only release the prisoners that are in good shape now; they will only let the sick/emaciated ones out in a few weeks, when the world isn't really watching any more)

Photos of Emily waving on a video call right after she was released went viral last week.

And inspired this, which was done by the father of Aner Shapira, who was Hersh Goldberg-Polin's best friend, and died defending a group of people from the Nova festival (including Hersh) who had hid in a roadside bomb shelter. Hamas terrorists tossed grenade after grenade into the shelter. Aner threw back the first seven. The eighth one exploded and killed him. 

the Priestly blessing

Knowing nothing about soccer aside from the poor reputation of most fans, I was touched to see the support that the Tottenham Hotspurs gave to Emily , including waving yellow balloons, putting yellow ribbons on the stadium and making up a special chant for Emily: "She's one of our own".