The father of a nine-year-old girl who was kidnapped and taken hostage by Hamas has revealed she’s finally smiling after spending weeks in captivity.
Emily Hand, 9, was kidnapped at a sleepover in Kibbutz Be-eri during the Hamas incursion of Israel on October 7, and she turned nine during her 50-day ordeal.
Initially it was thought Emily had been killed by Hamas, and her father Thomas Hand, 64, previously said he was glad she had died rather than going through the horror of being kidnapped.
But Emily had survived her ordeal and was reunited with her father 50 days in captivity – but was mute from the trauma she endured.
A year on from her kidnapping, Thomas told The Sun that his daughter is as ‘noisy and boisterous’ as ever, and is finally ‘smiling again’.
He said: ‘Emily still gets scared of loud noises and wasn’t able to sleep alone for a long time after she came back. She still has nightmares but counselling has helped and things are much better now.
‘She spent her last birthday in hell so I’ll be making sure she has a party to remember this year when she turns 10 on October 17.’
Mr Hand previously revealed what his daughter went through, as she was not kept in tunnels under Gaza – but instead Hamas made her run from the Israeli army from house to house.
She was ordered to remain silent throughout her horrific ordeal, and since her release she was only been able to speak in whispers.
He explained: ‘She was constantly being moved – sometimes under fire – to stay one step ahead of the army.
‘She must have been absolutely terrified – an eight-year-old girl being led by strangers from one blown-up shell of a house to the next in the middle of a war zone.’
Mr Hand said his daughter had recounted Hamas gunmen were shouting ‘yala, yala, yala’ in Arabic, which means ‘hurry, hurry, hurry’, at the hostages as they ran for their lives as Israel rained shells and gunfire down upon them.
‘I said when she was being held that I was horrified by the thought of her spending her ninth birthday in the tunnels under Gaza,’ he said.
‘But the reality of what was happening to her was actually much worse – and I’m glad I didn’t know what she was going through at the time.’
Another mother of a kidnapped British woman on October 7 revealed what her life has been like since Hamas kidnapped her daughter.
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Mandy Damari, 63, said her life turned into a ‘nightmare’ after her daughter Emily was taken captive from a Kibbutz in Israel almost a year ago.
The militant group has held Emily Damari for 364 days following her kidnapping.
The 28-year-old Tottenham Hotspur fan was taken from her home in Kibbutz Kfar Aza near the Gaza border.
She was reportedly shot in the hand while her golden cockapoo Choocha was killed.
Emily was taken away in her car and she is thought to be currently held in a Hamas tunnel.
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