Released hostage Romi Gonen began to eat of her own volition just this week, her mother, Meirav Leshem Gonen, said on Sunday.
“For the first time, I gave her bolognese because I wanted her to enjoy it, and she was finally able to. And we’re talking about three weeks since her release,” she told the N12 news site.
Her remarks came following the release of Or Levy, Eli Sharabi, and Ohad Ben Ami from Gaza captivity on Saturday in dire condition.
“It was shocking; it was horrifying,” she was cited as saying. “It’s not that we didn’t expect it because we saw how the girls came out too, and they had also lost an extreme amount of weight,” she added. But I think this is an escalation, and as time goes on, we will see even more severe cases.”
Hamas doesn’t provide sufficient food for the hostages, at times intentionally starving them and supplying them with food that is of very poor quality, Leshem Gonen noted.
She stated that one of the things she first noticed about her daughter when she returned from 471 days in captivity was “the long, protruding fingers,” adding, “It was simply shocking.”
Gonen's release
Leshem Gonen stated that the recovery was slow. “Physical recovery is slow, and it takes time for the body to even feel hunger again.”
With regard to the negotiations on the hostage-ceasefire deal, Leshem Gonen stated, “I think it’s really important to consider how we are perceived by Hamas. These are difficult moments, and the agreement is not easy. But I believe we need to have more faith in our strength as a people in order to succeed.”
On Sunday, an Israeli official told The Jerusalem Post that an Israeli delegation, headed by Coordinator for the Hostages and the Missing Brig.-Gen. (res.) Gal Hirsch and a senior Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) official arrived in Qatar for talks on the implementation of phase two of the hostage-ceasefire deal.