24-year-old Romi called her family from the Nova Music Festival. Then she was taken.

When Romi Gonen left home and travelled to Israel's Negev Desert, she was preparing for a weekend of dancing with friends.

Nova Festival, an outdoor trance music festival, was billed as a celebration of "friends, love and infinite freedom". There, thousands of people would gather near the Gaza border to dance their worries away.

Instead, early on October 7, 2023, air sirens cut through the music as rockets streaked overhead.

They were under attack.

Terrified attendees ran for their lives, seeking refuge in nearby bushes and orchards as the militants fired upon the crowd. Those who reached the road were trapped in traffic as their vehicles were shot at.

Romi and her friends found shelter and spent hours hiding in fear from the gunmen.

Her mother listened in on the phone as she tried desperately to leave the festival site. Her family heard her say the unimaginable: "I am going to die today."

Before the line went dead, Romi's family heard Arabic voices saying, "This one's alive, let's take her", per Reuters. Her phone was later traced to a location in the Gaza Strip.

Romi was held hostage for 471 days.

Emily Damari. Image: AAP.

Doron Steinbrecher. Image: AAP.

On Sunday January 19, 24-year-old Romi and two other Israeli women, 28-year-old Emily Damari and 31-year-old Doron Steinbrecher, were released by Hamas.

The women were the first hostages Hamas released under the terms of the Gaza ceasefire deal.

It marks an end to a harrowing ordeal for the women and their families, who have been desperately pleading for their loved ones to be set free.

When news of their release was confirmed, friends and family of the women clapped and cheered in central Tel Aviv.

Hamas handed the women to the Red Cross on a Gaza street, as thousands of people watched on. Israeli forces then took the women to the Sheba Medical Centre in Israel, where their mothers awaited their return.

Doron Steinbrecher, a veterinary nurse, and Emily Damari, were both abducted from their homes in Kibbutz Kfar Az, one of the communities worst hit in the October 7 attack.

Moments before she was abducted, Doron managed to call her parents to say the gunman had arrived at her building. Doron also sent a voice message to her friends, saying, "They've arrived. They have me".

"It was awful. I'm close by but I can't go to her because the entire area is sprawling with terrorists — I know she is being kidnapped and I can't help her," her mother Simona Steinbrecher told Reuters.

Meanwhile, Emily was reportedly shot in the hand and injured by shrapnel in her leg before being blindfolded, bundled into the back of her own car and driven to Gaza.

Romi Gonen (R) embracing her mother Merav. Image: AAP.

The women's emotional reunion with family was caught on camera, as loved ones hugged and sobbed.

"You're here! I can really touch you," one relative cried.

Emily's mother Mandy thanked, "everyone who never stopped fighting for Emily throughout this horrendous ordeal, and who never stopped saying her name.

"While Emily's nightmare in Gaza is over, for too many other families the impossible wait continues," she said in a statement. "Every last hostage must be released, and humanitarian aid must be provided to the hostages who are still waiting to come home."

Doron's family issued a statement saying: "After an unbearable 471 days, our beloved Dodo has finally returned to our arms. We want to express our heartfelt gratitude to everyone who supported and accompanied us along this journey.

"A special thank you to the people of Israel for their warm embrace, unwavering support, and the strength they gave us during our darkest moments. We also extend our gratitude to President Trump for his significant involvement and support, which meant so much to us.''

Israeli President Isaac Herzog said the "entire nation rejoices" at the return of the hostages.

"This is a day of joy and comfort, and the beginning of a challenging journey of recovery and healing together," he said.

"We will not rest or be silent until we bring back all our sisters and brothers from the hell of captivity in Gaza — the living to their families, and the fallen and murdered to be laid to rest in dignity."

People gather in Tel-Aviv to watch a livestream of the release of Israeli hostages Emily Damari, Romi Gonen, and Doron Steinbrecher. Image: Getty.

Israel and Palestine ceasefire.

Later on Sunday, Israel freed 90 Palestinian prisoners as part of the first stage of the ceasefire agreement.

The process will see 33 of Hamas' captives freed over the next six weeks in exchange for 1,904 Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails. The prisoners to be released are mainly Hamas fighters who were captured during the war in Gaza but were not involved in the October 7 attacks.

The Palestinian Authority press office said a number of prisoners had arrived in East Jerusalem. A Hamas spokesperson also confirmed that four more hostages would be released on January 25, as part of the deal.

Following months of stalemate in the 15-month Gaza war, the three-stage ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas was brokered earlier this week.

The first phase of the ceasefire agreement also provides for a rapid increase in aid deliveries for more than two million Gazans. The Israeli military is to withdraw from densely populated areas of the Gaza Strip, while Palestinians have been allowed to return to bombed-out neighbourhoods to begin rebuilding their lives.

A view over the Gaza Strip as seen from a position on the Israeli side of the border. Image: Getty.

The Gaza war began on October 7, 2023, when Hamas-led militants broke through security barriers and burst into Israeli border-area communities, killing some 1,200 people and taking around 250 hostages. Israel's air and ground war in the Gaza Strip has since killed more than 46,000 people, according to United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs figures. Nearly the entire 2.3 million population of Gaza is homeless, according to the UN.

-with AAP

Feature image: AAP.

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