2023-11-30 12:47:36
We thought she was dead. Ultimately, Emily was released by Hamas on Saturday. After the immense relief, his family must face a chilling reality. The former 9-year-old hostage is no longer the same. “She was a normal child, happy and noisy but now she whispers,” her father Tom Hand told the British daily The Sun in an interview published Wednesday. “She must have been ordered to be quiet for so long that she is still terrified of making any noise. »
Emily, who turned 9 on November 17 while a hostage, was kidnapped by Hamas on October 7 while staying with a friend, 13-year-old Hila, in Kibbutz Beeri. Her friend was also released on Saturday. Emily, whose mother died of cancer when she was two and a half years old, was initially announced dead before being classified among the hostages.
“She was clearly in shock”
“When she came back, I literally had to put my ear to her lips to hear what she was saying,” Tom Hand said. According to him, it was constantly moved by Hamas to escape the Israeli army. On the day of her release, “she ran up to me and hugged me, but she was clearly in shock because she thought I had been kidnapped too. »
The traumatized child then asked her father for her cell phone. She dreamed of being able to watch a video of her favorite singer, Beyoncé. His father vowed to restore all his innocence to him. “I will do whatever it takes to get Emily back to where she was.” As a father, it’s my job to make things better and I will. Her chubby cheeks may be gone, but she’s smiling again now that she’s safe. The road will be long but we will get there. »
The truce continues
Every day since last Friday, Hamas has released around ten women and children kidnapped during its bloody attack on October 7 in Israel, against the release of three times as many Palestinian prisoners. The truce agreement, negotiated with the support also of Egypt and the United States, has already enabled the release of 60 Israeli hostages and 180 Palestinians imprisoned in Israeli prisons. It is scheduled to continue until Friday.
Israeli authorities estimated at around 240 the number of people kidnapped and taken to Gaza on October 7, during the unprecedented attack by the Palestinian Islamist movement which left 1,200 dead in Israel, the vast majority civilians.
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