After 477 days in captivity, the "Hamas" hostage with Bulgarian roots, Daniela Gilboa, is now in the arms of her parents. She and three other women were released by the group on the day Israel, in turn, released 200 Palestinian prisoners.
"Until the last moment, we did not believe that she would be on the list of the second four released. "Hamas" is keeping us under great pressure and is not releasing the names. We have no information about the other hostages. Nothing is known. The joy of the release of the four young women, among whom was Daniela, was, of course, great". This was stated in "Sab'uva se” the chairman of the Bulgarian Cultural Center in Israel Rina Bakalov.
However, according to her, the Israeli authorities "put on a pretty ugly show" after the four women arrived on Israeli territory. "We witnessed a farce. What they did was put the girls on stage and force them to smile. That was pretty tasteless", she commented. But she emphasized: "On Saturday, it was a great joy. We watched the moment when they showed several frames of the children hugging their mothers and fathers. Tears flowed without you feeling it. We hope that all these dozens of people who are still in captivity will finally return to their loved ones. Of course, we hope they are alive".
Bakalov explained that the procedure for Daniela's Bulgarian citizenship was initiated after "Hamas" initially released two American prisoners. "They said that maybe because they have dual citizenship, that's why they will be released immediately. And the procedure was set in motion. We know Daniela's parents, because we translated her father's documents for Bulgarian citizenship. I must say that Bulgarian diplomacy worked very quickly. The ambassador to Israel started the procedure very quickly, as did Mrs. Yotova. Daniela received the status of a Bulgarian citizen very quickly," Bakalov emphasized.
And he added: "I don't think that helped, because later it turned out that "Hamas" doesn't care which hostages have dual citizenship. And there was obviously a lot of pressure for the first two released, who had American citizenship. In any case, Daniela's release is a joy for us. That she is of Bulgarian origin, that she is a very sweet, sunny and beautiful girl".