(Oct. 27, 2026 / JNS)
Former hostage Emily Damari said on Tuesday she was grateful to exercise her right to vote for Israel’s 26th Knesset in the wake of her captivity in the Gaza Strip that lasted 471 harrowing days.
“And to think that just a year and a half ago, I had to beg people to refill our water ...,” the British-Israeli woman, who was abducted during the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, invasion of the northwestern Negev, wrote on an image posted on Instagram on Tuesday.
“Today, I stand here, free, exercising a right that is also a duty: to vote and have a say in our country’s future. I once fought for the right to live. Today, I’m voting on how we will live here. Nothing can be taken for granted,” she continued.
Damari was redeemed from Gaza on Jan. 19, 2025, as part of the ceasefire agreement with the terrorist organization Hamas.
Former hostages Keith and Aviva Siegel voted together at Kibbutz Gazit in the Galilee.
The Siegels were kidnapped by Hamas terrorists from their home in Kibbutz Kfar Aza. Aviva was released in November 2023 after 51 days in captivity, while Keith was freed on Feb. 1, 2025, after 484 days.
Ex-captive Rom Braslavski, who was kidnapped while working as a security guard at the Supernova music festival on Oct. 7, posted a video on X of him casting his ballot.
“If I can go vote, all of you can,” he said to the camera in Hebrew. “Right or left, it doesn’t matter, let’s have real elections! Thank you,” he added.
Braslavski, 22, was held in Gaza alone for two years, during part of which time he was held together with the bodies of murdered hostages. He spent 738 days in captivity.
The vote for the Knesset is the country’s first general election since the Hamas-led attacks on Oct. 7, 2023.
The voting is scheduled to continue until 10 p.m., with some stations operating on shorter schedules.
Some 7.33 million Israelis are eligible to vote, according to Israeli Central Elections Committee figures dated Sept. 6, an increase of 543,177 since the previous election four years ago.