Sheba Hospital says three freed hostages are in stable condition

In brief statements Sunday evening, two doctors at the Sheba hospital suggested that the women did not need immediate emergency treatment.

“I am happy to announce that they are in stable condition,” said Professor Itai Pessach, adding: “This allows us, and them, to focus on what is most important for now – reuniting with their families.”

Sheba Medical Center was the first stop for dozens of prisoners who were captured in the October assault and later released, including many of those released in a hostage exchange for Palestinian prisoners in November 2023, as well the four hostages saved in daring and deadly Israeli military incursion in June 2024.

Professor Pessach, who led Sheba’s medical team for the return of the hostages, warned an interview in June that first impressions can be deceiving.

“The thing I know for sure is to expect the unexpected,” he said then, after receiving the four hostages who were rescued. “After eight months,” he said, “we had the idea that they would be a lot more broken, maybe a different look than they were.”

They had lost less weight than expected, he said. But then, he said, the results of the medical tests start to come in, along with the initial psychological evaluations, and “you start to understand what they went through.”

All four had returned suffering from severe malnutrition, Dr. Pessach said, adding that the lack of sunlight, abuse and psychological stress they had endured would have long-term implications for their health.

“As wonderful as it is to see Emily’s resilience, it’s still early days,” Mandy Damari, Emily’s mother, acknowledged in a statement Monday, in which she noted that Emily was “doing much better than any of us.” could never have anticipated.”

In a recent television interview, Yamit Ashkenazi, Ms. Steinbrecher’s sister, said she expected to receive “a different Doron.” Mrs. Ashkenazi also bothered to tell her sister that many of his friends were killed in the attack of Hamas.