Doron Steinbrecher, the 31-year-old veterinary nurse taken captive from Kibbutz Kfar Aza on October 7, is slated for release from Hamas captivity in Gaza as part of the first group of hostages to be freed in the current hostage deal.
The release will take place at approximately 4:00 pm today.
The trained veterinary nurse was one of many residents caught in the brutal attack on Kfar Aza, a kibbutz that had been considered safe and protected for decades. Her capture came during a morning of escalating terror, as residents huddled in safe rooms across the community, initially believing they were dealing with just a small number of infiltrators.
"We were sure that there were 10 terrorists and our heroes would get them out and the security forces would arrive," her sister Yamit Ashkenazi recalled of those early moments. "We never imagined anything like this."
The last moments before Steinbrecher's capture were documented through increasingly desperate communications with her family. At 6:30 AM, she, like other kibbutz residents, reported being in her safe room. By 10:30 AM, she sent what would be her final message to her parents, expressing her fear as terrorists reached her building. Her last words, sent via voice message to friends, were the chilling statement: "They've arrived, they have me."
The attack on Kfar Aza proved devastating for the entire community. Ashkenazi, who has lived in the kibbutz for 34 years, reflected on the shattered sense of security: "We were always given the sense that we're protected. But in the end, they invaded, killed us, abducted us and burned our houses down."
In a cruel twist of fate, while Steinbrecher was taken, her parents survived a harrowing day with terrorists using their garden as a makeshift headquarters. Mysteriously, the militants never attempted to enter their home - what her sister Yamit described as "a miracle."
During the initial uncertainty following the attack, the family clung to small signs of hope - her room hadn't been burned, and no body was found. A week after the attack, they received official notification that Doron was considered missing.
Steinbrecher will be released with two other captives, Emily Damari and Romi Gonen today (Sunday). As part of the agreement, Israel began its ceasefire at 11:15 am, after eliminating a Hamas terrorist cell in Khan Yunis.
The families of Gaza hostages will learn in six days which of their loved ones are coming home, as Hamas prepares to release four more women next week. Israeli authorities confirmed they will notify the chosen families just 24 hours before their relatives are set to cross back into Israel.
The confirmation that these four women are alive brings hope to families who have been waiting for news of their loved ones for sixteen agonizing months.
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