HOSTAGE HELL
‘I’ll kill you with this knife’ – horror threat faced by Hamas hostage Emily Hand, 9, as dad reveals girl’s ‘code words’
Thomas told how his little girl is doing after her horror hostage ordeal
THE father of a little girl who was abducted by Hamas and later released has told how he was “willing to pay” the price of her death by Israeli hands.
Thomas Hand’s daughter Emily, now nine, was released from captivity in a prisoner exchange on November 25, several weeks after she was taken in an October 7 raid by Hamas forces in Israel.
4
4
4
Speaking to Israeli news organisation KAN News at the weekend, Irish-born Tom said life was still “difficult” as the pair try to recover from their horrific experience last year.
He recounted how Emily now has “code words” for things like ‘Gaza’ and ‘terrorist’ and had told him that a Hamas fighter had told her to be quiet “or I’ll kill you with this knife”.
He added: “In my head, at the time when she was captive, I knew that the IDF had to do everything in its powers to destroy Hamas, primarily, and to do whatever that they could do to find and retrieve the hostages.
“Within that thought process, I realised that she could be bombed, could be shot by friendly fire, and that was a price that in my head, I could say: ‘OK.’
“So long as we destroy Hamas, so long as the government and the military finish the job that they started out to do.
“If not, everyone who’s died, hostages, all the massacres, all the terrible things that happened, is pointless, pointless, a waste of time, effort and lives. We have to finish the job completely.
“I really don’t care what the world says, I really don’t care - doesn’t matter what I say, they’ll think whatever they want.
“But now, we have to finish it. They started it and we will finish it.”
Most read in Irish News
Earlier this year, Thomas Hand has told of how his "resilient" little girl might of got her voice back but together they are "still suffering".
"When she first came back, we were very happy but just heartbroken," said Thomas, 63.
He said: "She wasn’t physically injured at all. She wasn’t molested, she wasn’t hurt in any way. But just it was more on the mental side.”
Emily spent 50 harrowing days including her ninth birthday dodging bullets as Hamas terrorists herded her between houses in Gaza.
By the time she was released, the bubbly Disney fan, who had loved to sing and dance, was rail-thin, glassy-eyed, frightened of loud noises and too scared to speak.
"They were told, they'd better all be quiet or they'd get killed," said Thomas, who moved from Ireland to Israel 30 years ago. "They were quiet, believe me."
'Long road'
In his first interview after she walked free on November 25, he told The Sun: “She was a happy noisy kid, now she whispers.
"She’s been terrorised by terrorists in hell but as her dad it’s my job to make it better and I will.
“It’s going to be a long road but we’ll get there.”
But weeks have passed and now he is marvelling at the strength of his brave young daughter who is managing to bounce back, slowly but surely.
She is going to therapy, sailing, zip-lining, horse riding and learning to be a child again.
Read More on The Sun
"Now she's all full volume. She doesn't say much about what happened to her in Gaza. Just little bits every now and then."
"I guess that just shows how resilient kids are compared to adults. We're still suffering," he added.
4
Topics