Emily Hand, whose death was celebrated by her father because he feared his daughter was being held captive by Hamas while she was still alive, was released last Saturday. Her own father, Irishman Thomas Hand, was seen hugging his daughter in a photo released in the past few hours.
Days after the attacks by the Hamas movement on Israeli communities near the Gaza border, Thomas Hand gave an interview to CNN International and tearfully told how he celebrated when Israeli authorities announced that he had found his daughter. , eight years at that time, among the deaths in a community attacked by Hamas where the girl stayed the night at a friend’s house.
“They said they found Emily and she was dead. I was like, ‘Yes! Yes.’ , or I said in Gaza. What they are doing to the people in Gaza is worse than death. Death is a blessing and an absolute blessing,” said the Irish immigrant to Israel, whose wife died of cancer when Emily was two years old.
A month after the attack, Thomas Hand learned that his daughter might be alive among the hostages taken by Hamas militants on October 7. After all, Emily’s body was not found among the dead at Beery, and her DNA did not match samples collected at the scene. The shelter used by Emily to protect herself from the Hamas attack had no bloodstains indicating the girl’s death.
“I had to shift my whole brain and digest this new information. When they told me, I said, ‘No, no, no, no, no, no,'” the man admitted to The Associated Press. At that time, if she had really been alive, Emily would have been nine years old on November 17: “She didn’t even know it was her birthday, she didn’t know what day it was. You can imagine the fear,” she said. father
After a delay in handing over the hostages on Saturday, Thomas Hand finally welcomed his daughter Emily alive. “We cannot find words to describe our emotions after 50 challenging and complicated days,” the family said in a statement. [mãe de uma amiga de Emily] and on all hostages who have not yet returned.”