She likes watching the footy, drinking pints, dry humour and having cuppas with mates. It has now been one year since Emily Damari – the last remaining British hostage, who has dual nationality – was abducted into the terror tunnels of Gaza.

Damari, who celebrated her 28th birthday in captivity, was taken from her home on Kibbutz Kfar Aza by terrorists, and her beloved dog, Choocha, was shot.

Since then, she has missed her grandfather’s death in London earlier this year, births, weddings and the numerous birthdays of her many friends.

The youngest of four siblings, Emily is the “light and life” of her family and friendsm according to those who knew her and, as the host of the “best barbeques on the kibbutz” and armed with her sharp wit, her home was frequently full of people eager to be in her presence.

Emily has always remained close to her British roots too, her family says, and loves visiting London with her mum to engage in all-too British pastimes, such as visiting Primark, attending Ed Sheeran and Adele concerts, and cheering on her favourite football team, Tottenham Hotspurs, in the pub.

Emily Damari, who was taken from her home in Kfar Aza

Former hostages, who were held captive with her, have testified to Emily’s unyielding bravery in the face of impossible circumstances, raising the spirits of her fellow captives in the dark tunnels of Gaza by leading singalongs of Boker Shel Kef (it’s a great morning) every day.

Now though, it has been a long time since any more reports of her condition have surfaced. Her mother, Mandy, has existed through a “living nightmare”, she said, not knowing “what torture” – from starvation to sexual abuse – Emily is being subjected to at the hands of terrorists.

Mandy Damari, 63, was born in Surrey and travelled to Israel to volunteer in her 20s. There, she fell in love and got married to an Israeli, had four children and eventually four grandchildren, living happily for over 30 years on Kibbutz Kfar Aza where she taught English as a nursery schoolteacher in her free time. That was until October 7, when her life was “turned upside down”.

On the eve of the one-year anniversary of the abduction of her daughter, Mandy spoke about her anguish for the first time publicly in front of many thousands of people in Hyde Park at an event to mark one year event since Hamas terrorists murdered some 1,200 people and took around 250 hostage. 

“Soon, there will be nothing left of my heart, or Emily,” she said on stage. “Every second she is held there is a second too long.”

In her remarks, Mandy said she was “raised with the great British ideals of pubs, parties and freedom”. It was this last and most important value – freedom to think, to speak, to live – that she tried to instil in her children and grandchildren. “Today I am here because my daughter Emily, a British-Israeli woman, is no longer free to do any of these things,” Mandy said.

Mandy Damari implores the UK government to do more to bring her British-Israeli daughter, Emily Damari, held hostage in Gaza for a year, home (Photo: Gary Manhine)

She beseeched everyone present, who stood silently and attentively in the rain before her, “to use every ounce of influence they have” to advocate government leaders to prioritise the release of the hostages.

Emily’s love for life is “contagious”, said Mandy, and she “adores” time spent visiting family in England. “She had the classic British sense of humour with a dash of Israeli chutzpah thrown in for good measure,” Mandy said.

“When she was young, her favourite place was London Zoo, not far from here. As she got older, she turned into a big foodie, always dragging us to her favourite restaurants. We’d go shopping in Primark and visit markets for a good bargain. She went to see Spurs, who she loved, in their new stadium with her brother, and she loved going to the pub. For her, that was England, and she loved her second home across the sea and always looked forward to coming here. Now, all that joy and that light is locked away.”

She loved her second home across the sea

Mandy recounted how hostages who came back from Gaza in November last year had comforted her with stories of Emily’s bravery and courageousness while in captivity. “They told me that some of them had met her while they were being moved around, some for short periods, some for longer. But they all told me about her bravery and courage and even her laughter, and the way she helped hold everyone together even in the worst times.” One former hostage told Mandy that Emily sang Boker Shel Kef every morning, despite the darkness.

“I’m sure she’s not singing now,” Mandy said. “I keep thinking of the six hostages that were murdered hours before they were discovered by the IDF. About Eden Yerushalmi, who weighed just 32 kilos. In the tunnel they were kept in, there was no room to stand up in and hardly any air to breathe, with just a bucket to relieve themselves in.

“How is it that she is still imprisoned there after one year? Why isn’t the whole world, especially Britain, fighting every moment to secure her release? She is one of their own,” Mandy said to applause. “But her plight seems to have forgotten. My beautiful, funny and brave daughter, who I love to the moon and back deserves to come home. I need to hug her again. I need to see her smile.”

A photo of British-Israeli hostage Emily Damari is projected onto the Brighton cliffs by the Yellow Ribbon Campaign. (Photo: Nikki Greco)

She said she “sometimes wonders” if people are even aware that there is a British woman hostage in Gaza.

“Imagine, for a moment, if Emily was your daughter. Try to picture what she is going through,” Mandy requested. “Since October 7 last year, she has been held a hostage by Hamas terrorists in the Gaza terror tunnels, 20 metres or more underground, kept in captivity, tortured, isolated, unable to eat, speak or even move without someone else’s permission. Stripped of every human right. It is almost impossible to comprehend her pain. Yet it is the reality she is living every single day.”

Mandy castigated the British government for not doing more to bring home one of their own: “Diplomatic pressure, negotiations, humanitarian efforts, whatever it takes, we cannot let another day pass. We cannot afford to lose any more lives to this nightmare. We don’t need tea and sympathy; we need actions, not words.”

Last week, Mandy met with Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer and Foreign Secretary David Lammy to implore that they do all they could to secure the safe return of all the remaining hostages.

She handed the prime minister a letter she had written for Emily and requested he did all in his power to get it to her.

“I hope this letter gets to you when you are alive and home with me, Abba and all your family, and you’ll see that we are all alive,” the letter read. “If it gets to you in Gaza, know that we all love you and miss you and are sick with worry about what is happening to you every day, and we are praying and meeting whoever we can to get you back home,

“Please keep strong, keep praying and just be your beautiful self that I love to the moon and back. You will come home. And I promise that I’ll never complain again about your perfume sticking to me when you’re home.”

Emily was one of 19 people kidnapped from Kibbutz Kfar Aza. Sixty-four of her neighbours – men, women, children and elderly – were murdered.