Mourning his 8-year-old daughter believed killed in Hamas\u2019 October 7 attacks on Israel, Thomas Hand said he was\u00a0at least partially consoled militants had not taken her\u00a0hostage. <\/p>\n
Of all the terrible possibilities for her, death was the least painful, he said. <\/p>\n
But then the Israeli military gave him the news\u00a0that nearly made him collapse. <\/p>\n
Emily might still be alive. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s her birthday on the 17th of [November]. She will be 9,\u201d he said. \u201cShe won\u2019t even know day it\u00a0is.\u00a0She won\u2019t know it\u2019s her\u00a0birthday.\u00a0There will be no birthday cake.\u00a0No party, no friends.\u00a0She will just be petrified in a\u00a0tunnel under Gaza.\u00a0That is her birthday.\u201d <\/p>\n
Emily was sleeping at her friend\u2019s house in the kibbutz of Be\u2019eri when\u00a0Hamas militants attacked one month ago, killing more than 120 residents and kidnapping many others in a bloody and indiscriminate rampage that has left a deep and abiding scar on the close-knit border community. <\/p>\n
The IDF estimates 240 Israeli hostages are being held by Hamas in Gaza, including civilian men, women and children. <\/p>\n
The militant group has released just four hostages \u2013 two elderly Israeli women and an American mother and daughter \u2013 while the IDF last week said troops had rescued an Israeli soldier. <\/p>\n
Information about the status and whereabouts of the hostages remains scarce but many of the missing are believed to be trapped within the labyrinth of Hamas tunnels that have been dug beneath the enclave. <\/p>\n
Israel insists there will be no ceasefire until the hostages are freed. <\/p>\n
\u201cI went \u2018yes!\u2019 I went \u2018yes\u2019 and smiled. Because that is the best news of the possibilities that I knew. That was the best possibility I was hoping for,\u201d he said, tears streaming down his face. <\/p>\n
\u201cShe was either dead or in Gaza. And if you know anything about what they do to people in Gaza, that is worse than death.\u201d <\/p>\n
Hand said he had been planning to hold a funeral for Emily so she could be buried beside her mother, who died from cancer a few years ago. <\/p>\n
But the Israeli military has told him her body is not with the remains of the victims, and no blood was found inside the home where she slept the night before the attacks, he said. <\/p>\n
The military also said cellphones belonging to the family Emily\u00a0was staying with had been\u00a0tracked inside Gaza, according to Hand. <\/p>\n
Hand said he is now flooded with\u00a0both hope and despair, anguished by what Emily might be enduring, but praying once more for her safe return. <\/p>\n
\u201c(I am) extremely worried about her,\u201d he said. \u201cWhat conditions she has been held in\u2026 your imagination is horrible.\u201d <\/p>\n
The survivors of the Be\u2019eri\u00a0massacre are temporarily living\u00a0in a hotel.\u00a0In the lobby, there\u2019s a vigil\u00a0for hostages, which\u00a0Emily\u2019s\u00a0photo will be\u00a0added to, Hand said. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe unknown is awful, the\u00a0waiting is awful,\u201d he said.\u00a0\u201cThat is what we have got to do\u00a0now, just pray and hope that\u00a0she comes back in some broken\u00a0state that we can fix her.\u00a0We will fix her somehow.\u201d <\/p>\n
Hand\u2019s thoughts are now on the possibility of an emotional reunion with the daughter he had believed was dead. <\/p>\n
\u201cIn my head, I can see her\u00a0running to me, and me running to\u00a0her, picking her up, never letting\u00a0her go,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n\n
Mourning his 8-year-old daughter believed killed in Hamas\u2019 October 7 attacks on Israel, Thomas Hand said he was\u00a0at least partially consoled militants had not taken her\u00a0hostage. Of all the terrible possibilities for her, death was the least painful, he said. But then the Israeli military gave him the news\u00a0that nearly made him collapse. Emily might <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":11270,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-11269","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11269","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11269"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11269\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11270"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11269"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11269"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11269"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}