‘My daughter thought she’d been in Gaza for a year’ says father of freed 9 year old - The Jewish Chronicle

The details of what Emily Hand endured during her captivity in Gaza, a place she now calls ‘the box’, are slowly beginning to emerge.

“We’ll only know what she really went through as she opens up,” Thomas Hand, Emily’s father, told CNN. “I want to know so much information … but you have to let them, when they are ready, come out with it.”

The Irish-Israeli 9-year-old was reunited with her father late on Saturday, part of the second group of hostages released in the agreement between Israel and Hamas, and the moment of their long-awaited reunion at a hospital in Israel has been immortalised in a heart-wrenching video circulating on social media.

“All of a sudden the door opened up and she just ran. It was beautiful, just like I had imagined it, running together,” Thomas said. “I probably squeezed her too hard.”

Thomas spoke to CNN about the emotional days since Emily’s return, noting her weight loss, pale complexion, and headlice. According to what Emily told him, the hostages were always given breakfast, though only “sometimes lunch, sometimes something in the evening.”

While Emily told her father that “nobody hit us,” the children were reportedly not allowed to make noise:

“The most shocking, disturbing part of meeting her was she was just whispering, you couldn’t hear her. I had to put my ear on her lips,” he said. “She’d been conditioned not to make any noise.”

We are starting to learn about the impact of Hamas captivity on the children and it's utterly heartbreaking.

Thomas Hand, father of 9-year-old Emily, says the little girl thought she had been held hostage for a year and now cries herself to sleep.

“The most shocking, disturbing… pic.twitter.com/Gfw5rCoYEp
— Aviva Klompas (@AvivaKlompas) November 28, 2023

While she was held captive, Emily assumed her father had also been kidnapped and, when he asked how long she thought she had been gone, she said “a year”.

“Apart from the whispering, that was a punch in the guts. A year,” Thomas said.

Emily had been kept with her friend Hila Rotem-Shoshani, 13, and Hila’s mother Raaya, until both children were released on Saturday, and Thomas said Raaya looked after Emily like she was her own. The children were allowed only to draw and play cards, with no other activity to pass the time.

Emily had been sleeping over at Hila’s house on October 7 when Hamas terrorists entered Kibbutz Be’eri, and Thomas was initially led to believe that his daughter had been killed in the massacre. But a month after the attack, the IDF told the bereft father that it was “highly probable” his daughter was still alive and had been kidnapped by Hamas. Up until their reunion, he was wracked by the unknown of her conditions.

Now, Thomas’ priority is ensuring Emily’s wellbeing and advocating for the other hostages’ release.

“Last night she cried until her face was red and blotchy, she couldn’t stop. She didn’t want any comfort,” Thomas said.

“I guess she’s forgotten how to be comforted. She went under the covers of the bed, the quilt, covered herself up and quietly cried.”

But he said that Emily is already showing signs of resilience, like laughing and asking to hear a Beyonce song on the car ride home from the handover.

“She’s a very determined little girl, very strong. I knew that her spirit would get her through it.”