The first three hostages were released to the Red Cross after 15 months of captivity by Hamas, as part of an agreement on a ceasefire and the release of hostages between Israel and Hamas which went into effect earlier on Sunday.

The three women — identified by the Hostage and Missing Families Forum as 24-year-old Romin Gonen, 31-year-old Doron Steinbrecher and 28-year-old Emily Damari — were released to the Red Cross by Hamas militants around 10:30 a.m. morning EST, 5:30 PM local time. They held back from the October 7, 2023, attack on Israel by Hamas.

The Red Cross handed them over to the Israel Defense Forces in Israel to receive initial health checks at special reception centers near the Gaza border, a senior IDF official said.

After these checks, they were to be transferred either by helicopter or ground vehicle to hospitals inside Israel, where areas were prepared to welcome them and treat any medical needs they might have.

They were expected to be reunited with their families once at the hospital, a senior IDF official said.

About 250 people were abducted during a Hamas attack on October 7, 2023 that set off 15 months of war. About 100 hostages still remain in Gaza, after the others were released or their bodies found.

Hours before Sunday’s truce, which many hope is the first step toward ending the war, Israel announced it had recovered the body of Oron Shaul, a soldier who was killed in the 2014 war between Israel and Hamas and whose remains have been guarded by militants ever since.

Here’s what we know about them:

Romi Gonen, 24

Gonen was abducted from the Nova music festival in southern Israel on October 7, 2023. That morning, Gonen’s mother, Merav, and her older daughter spent nearly five hours talking to Gonen as militants ransacked the festival grounds. Gonen told her family that the roads clogged with abandoned cars made it impossible to escape and that she would seek shelter in some bushes.

Then she said the words that echo in her mother’s head every day. “Mom, I’ve been shot, the car’s been shot, everyone’s been shot… I’m wounded and I’m bleeding. Mom, I think I’m going to die,” she told Romi sayingat a press conference a few weeks after the kidnapping.

Over the past 15 months, Merav has been one of the most outspoken voices advocating for the return of the hostages, appearing almost daily on Israeli news programs and traveling abroad on missions.

“We’re doing everything we can so the world doesn’t forget,” Merav told The Associated Press six months since the attack by Hamas. “Every day we wake up and take a deep breath, take a deep breath and keep walking, keep doing the things that will bring her back.”

Emily Damari, 28

Damari is a British-Israeli citizen abducted from her apartment in Kibbutz Kfar Az, a communal farming village that was hit hard by the Hamas attack. She lived in a small apartment in a youth complex. The militants broke through the border fence of the kibbutz and ransacked the neighborhood.

Kibbutz Kfar Aza said that Damari was often “the glue that held her close group of friends together” and that she always organized gatherings of friends around the best barbecue corner in the entire kibbutz.

“All Emily’s mom Mandy wants to do is hug Emily. But she won’t believe it until she sees it,” said Emily Cohen, a representative of the Damari family. CBS News partner BBC before her release.

Doron Steinbrecher, 31

Steinbrecher is an animal-loving veterinary nurse and neighbor of Damari in Kibbutz Kfar Az.

At 10:20 a.m. on October 7, 2023, Steinbrecher called her mother. “Mom, I’m scared. I’m hiding under the bed and I hear them trying to get into my apartment,” her brother Dor recalled, according to the Associated Press.

Steinbrecher was shown in a video released by Hamas on January 26, 2024, along with two other female Israeli soldiers.

How will the other hostages be released

Gonen, Steinbrecher and Damari are the first three hostages to be freed under the newly introduced ceasefire and hostage release agreement between Israel and Hamas, which will be implemented in phases.

The first phase of the truce requires Hamas to release 33 hostages over six weeks. They include women, children and hostages over the age of 50, according to a draft reviewed by CBS News.

On the first day of the agreement, Hamas was to release three hostages. On the seventh day, the four hostages were to be released. After that, Hamas would release three hostages taken from Israel every seven days, starting with the living and then returning the bodies of those who died.

Over 1,000 Palestinian prisoners in Israel would also be freed in the first phase of the deal. Israel was expected to release 90 prisoners in exchange for the release of the first three hostages.

“These are critical and emotional hours for the families and for all of Israel,” the Hostage and Missing Families Forum said in a statement. “While we rejoice for every hostage who returns home, we remain deeply concerned for our loved ones who may be left behind. Now, more than ever, we need the public to stand with us until the last hostage is returned. We will leave no one behind. Only our united strength we can ensure the return of everyone – the living to rehabilitation and the deceased to a proper burial.”