For more than 470 days, Eitan Gonen publicly pleaded with his daughter to stay alive while in Hamas captivity.
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Romi Gonen, right, and her mother Merav hold each other near kibbutz Reim, southern Israel after Romi was released from captivity by Hamas militants in Gaza, Sunday, Jan. 19, 2025. When he finally got to speak to his daughter for the first time in 15 months after she and two other women were freed Jan. 19, he got his answer."She said, ’Dad, I came home alive,'” Eitan Gonen told The Associated Press on Tuesday in his first interview with an international news outlet since her release.
Sitting in a complex in central Israel where his daughter and some of the other freed hostages are staying, Eitan Gonen wouldn't comment on Romi's health but said there's a long road ahead. “Human beings will do anything to survive. Anything. And since the terrorists don’t speak any other language other than Arabic, she didn’t have any chance in order to communicate with them — to start learning their language,” he said, noting that she has even spoken it at times since being freed, likely out of habit.
Religion Merav Leshem Gonen Emily Damari Eitan Gonen World News Ami Benov Naama Levy
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