The free world is in a fight against terrorism, according to Yarden Gonen, the big sister of Romi Gonen who has been held hostage in Gaza for over 14 months.
If action is not taken soon to release her sister and all the hostages still in Gaza, “maybe they won’t stay alive, and then it means … the free world let the terrorists win,” Yarden Gonen said.
Yarden Gonen was asleep the morning of Oct. 7, 2023, when her sister called her on the phone. At first, she didn’t answer. She knew her little sister was attending the Nova Music Festival along Israel’s border with Gaza and figured she was only calling to share the experience with her. But it was unusual for Romi Gonen to call so early. Fearing something might be wrong, the elder sister picked up the phone.
“I answered with my eyes closed underneath the blanket and asked her if everything is OK because I’m sleeping,” Yarden Gonen recalled. “And then another weird thing happened, because she said, ‘No. I need your help.’”
Yarden Gonen spent the next four and a half hours on and off phone calls with her sister, trying from afar to understand what was happening and guide her sister to safety as Hamas terrorists attacked the festival and surrounding communities.
For a brief 10 minutes, Yarden Gonen and her parents thought that the nightmare had ended. A friend of Romi Gonen’s had returned to the festival area to rescue her and others, but the relief ended abruptly when terrorists intercepted the vehicle, killed the driver, shot and killed Romi Gonen’s best friend, and shot her in the arm.
“I’ll bleed to death,” Romi Gonen told her mother over the phone after being shot, Yarden Gonen recalled during an interview with The Daily Signal.
“I think that is the sentence that keeps on repeating in my head that my mom heard,” the sister said. “No mom should hear that sentence from her daughter.”
Romi Gonen, who is now 24, is one of 10 female hostages who are believed to still be alive and held hostage in Gaza.
Speaking alongside Yarden Gonen during a trip to Washington, D.C., to advocate for his sibling’s freedom as well, Amit Levy said his little sister had begun serving in the Israel Defense Forces only two days before the Oct. 7 terrorist attack.
He found out that his sister, Naama Levy, now 20, was taken hostage that Saturday after a video surfaced of a terrorist pulling a young woman from the back of a vehicle in Gaza, her hands bound behind her back and her sweatpants bloodied.
“I know that many families, including Yarden’s [Gonen] family, thought maybe it’s their family member, and I wish I would be able to lie to myself when I saw that video and say, ‘Maybe it’s not Naama,’ but when we saw it … it was very, very obvious to whoever knows Naama that it’s her,” the brother said.
“My little sister, from our understanding, was injured in her leg, Romi [Gonen] in her arm, and … they probably didn’t get any medical care,” Amit Levy said.
In addition to Romi Gonen and Naama Levy, eight other women are being held hostage in Gaza, including Arbel Yehoud, Doron Steinbrecher, Liri Albag, Daniela Gilboa, Shiri Bibas, Karina Ariev, Agam Berger, and Emily Tehila Damari.
More than 50 men and two children are also believed to be alive and still being held hostage in Gaza.
“I feel like sometimes maybe in America people tend to forget what terrorism looks like,” since there has not been a major attack since 9/11, Yarden Gonen said. “But as long as we’re letting this situation continue, we’re letting other terrorist groups to do whatever they want, wherever they want.”
Freedom for the hostages, according to her, will be a symbol for the world of “saying ‘no’ to terrorism.”
