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Hostages freed before Saturday’s exchange have expressed relief and joy, while descriptions of the torment they endured are trickling out.

The released Israeli hostages from left: Naama Levy, Karina Ariev, Agam Berger, Liri Albag and Daniella Gilboa during a musical performance in their honor in a hospital in central Israel this month.Credit...Jack Guez/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Feb. 9, 2025Updated 10:23 a.m. ET

Doron Steinbrecher vowed that she would never wear pink again when she made her first public comments in a video after being freed from more than 15 months in Hamas captivity in Gaza.

A year ago, she had appeared in a hostage video made by her captors wearing a pale rose-colored sweatshirt. When the Palestinian militant group Hamas released her last month, she was dressed in a bright magenta track suit and looked pale.

Sitting in front of a camera again took her back to the difficult moments when her captors filmed her in Gaza, Ms. Steinbrecher, 31, said in the video, looking composed and smiling at times.

“This time, I’m sitting comfortably on a couch with my family watching me in a warm and pleasant place,” she said. Trying to convey that she had not been broken, she said it was important for her to show everyone that “I’m OK.”

As families and sympathizers at home and abroad doggedly campaigned for the release of the Israeli hostages, most people knew them only as faces staring out from posters. Now, with 16 Israelis released since Jan. 19 under the cease-fire deal with Hamas, those haunting faces are coming to life in video clips, social media posts and statements from relatives that provide glimpses of the joy and relief of freedom as well as hints of the torment they have endured.

The brief messages they have sent out have mostly been expressions of gratitude to all those who worked for their release and pleas not to give up until the last hostage is freed.

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