‘She should be saying “the place’s my daddy, why is not he coming to save lots of me”‘: Father of Irish-Israeli woman Emily Hand, 9, says she can be enduring ‘sheer terror’ in Gaza tunnels after being kidnapped by Hamas ‘monsters’

The daddy of a nine-year-old woman who has been held hostage by Hamas for six weeks says he is terrified that his daughter is enduring ‘sheer terror’ within the airless Gaza tunnels. 

Emily Hand turned 9 years previous as a Hamas prisoner on Friday, precisely six weeks after the phobia group launched a shock incursion into Israel and slaughtered 1,200 folks, principally civilians.

Her father, Irish-born Thomas Hand, beforehand believed that she had died after a unit of Hamas terrorists killed over 130 folks at Kibbutz Be’eri on October 7, the place she was staying for a sleepover at her pal’s residence. 

He beforehand mentioned he was glad to listen to that she was useless, as a result of he was fearful of how she might have been handled by Hamas. 

At a press convention in London immediately, Mr Hand mentioned he believed she was going through ‘sheer terror and panic each hour of day-after-day.’ 

‘She should be saying day-after-day: “The place’s my daddy? The place’s my daddy, why is not be coming to save lots of me?”.’ 

<img id="i-c15c6b30a032c15e" src="https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2023/11/20/15/78023761-12771069-Hand_who_was_told_late_last_month_by_Israel_authorities_that_Emi-a-32_1700495915173.jpg" peak="435" width="306" alt="Mr Hand, who was informed late final month by Israel authorities that Emily was in actual fact nonetheless alive, mentioned he was fearful in regards to the psychological and bodily toll being a hostage would tackle his younger daughter” class=”blkBorder img-share” model=”max-width:100%” />

<img id="i-c15c6b30a032c15e" src="https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2023/11/20/15/78023761-12771069-Hand_who_was_told_late_last_month_by_Israel_authorities_that_Emi-a-32_1700495915173.jpg" peak="435" width="306" alt="Mr Hand, who was informed late final month by Israel authorities that Emily was in actual fact nonetheless alive, mentioned he was fearful in regards to the psychological and bodily toll being a hostage would tackle his younger daughter” class=”blkBorder img-share” />

Mr Hand, who was informed late final month by Israeli authorities that Emily was in actual fact nonetheless alive, mentioned he was fearful in regards to the psychological and bodily toll being a hostage would tackle his younger daughter

He informed reporters on the press convention, at which members of the family of kidnapped kinfolk pleaded for his or her family members’ secure return: ‘That is what I am dwelling by means of, that is what we’re all dwelling by means of. A nightmare, an absolute nightmare.’

Hand, who was informed late final month by Israeli authorities that Emily was in actual fact nonetheless alive, mentioned he was fearful in regards to the psychological and bodily toll being a hostage would tackle his younger daughter. 

‘I do not know what situation she’s gonna be in, however she’s gonna be damaged, very damaged, mentally and bodily, and we’ll have to repair that,’ he mentioned.  

‘It is gonna take a very long time to repair that. That is what we have got to do, and we are going to do it, regardless of how lengthy it takes.

‘That is my prime focus, my cause for dwelling, for getting up within the morning day-after-day.

‘As a result of consider me, I simply need to keep in mattress and simply… fall asleep and overlook all of it. 

‘However for Emily, I’ve to rise up and do all the things that I can to get Emily again and all the kids and the infants, 38 of them.’

Pictured: Emily Hand. The nine-year-old woman had stayed the evening at a pal’s home on Friday, her father Thomas mentioned. For 12 hours whereas the kibbutz was underneath siege, he didn’t know the destiny or whereabouts of his little woman

Irish-born Thomas Hand together with his daughters Emily and Natalie (pictured, proper)(

Israeli officers informed the Hand household that Emily was possible someplace within the besieged Gaza Strip, after they spent over a month believing she was useless 

Israeli officers informed the Hand household that Emily was possible someplace within the besieged Gaza Strip, after they spent over a month believing she was useless. 

Her older sister, Natalie, informed Israeli media: ‘We had been informed that she had been murdered. We had been in mourning.

‘On October 31, they informed us that it was extremely possible that she had been kidnapped.’

When Natalie was requested whether or not she had something she wished to say to Emily, on the off-chance she may very well be listening, she mentioned: ‘I need to inform you that we’re doing all the things to get you residence. We all know you’re being held hostage.

‘We love you a lot and miss you.’ 

Thomas, who was born within the coastal city of Dún Laoghaire within the Republic of Eire, mentioned in an interview with CNN simply days after Hamas‘ brutal assault in opposition to Israel: ‘[Israeli authorities] mentioned, “We discovered Emily. She’s useless,” and I simply went “Sure!” I went “sure”, and I smiled, as a result of that’s the finest information of the probabilities that I knew.

‘She was both useless, or in Gaza. And if you recognize something about what they do to folks in Gaza, that’s worse than demise,’ he mentioned.

‘They’d haven’t any meals. They’d haven’t any water. She’d be in a darkish room stuffed with Christ is aware of how many individuals, and terrified each minute, hour, day, and potential years to come back. So demise was a blessing. An absolute blessing.’

The press convention with the households of hostages comes simply days after Israeli troops revealed they discovered the our bodies of two hostages close to a tunnel shaft at Gaza’s Al-Shifa Hospital, that they consider was utilized by Hamas. 

The IDF revealed proof of weaponry which it mentioned proved the hospital was a terrorist base

IDF troops belonging to the Shaldag Unit, the seventh Brigade, and extra particular models proceed are persevering with to conduct focused exercise within the Shifa Hospital

The IDF launched a video it mentioned confirmed a tunnel entrance in an outside space of Al-Shifa hospital, two days after Israeli troops entered its grounds to hunt for a Hamas command centre they are saying is beneath the medical facility.

In the course of the raid, Israel mentioned its troops discovered the our bodies of two hostages – Yehudit Weiss, 64, and Israeli soldier Noa Marciano, 19 – from a constructing adjoining to the hospital.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed there have been ‘sturdy indications’ that hostages had been held on the hospital however they had been now not there when the power was raided.

‘We had sturdy indications that they had been held within the Shifa Hospital, which is among the causes we entered the hospital,’ he informed CBS Night Information. ‘In the event that they had been (there), they had been taken out.’

Gaza’s Hamas-run Well being Ministry immediately claimed {that a} shell hit the second flooring of the Indonesian Hospital, killing no less than 12 folks and a medical employee, as a part of the IDF’s effort to clear medical amenities throughout Gaza that it claims are being utilized by Hamas as cowl.

Heavy combating broke out across the Indonesian Hospital, which has housed 1000’s of sufferers and displaced folks for weeks.

The combating got here a day after the World Well being Organisation evacuated 31 untimely infants from Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza Metropolis, the enclave’s largest, the place they had been amongst greater than 250 critically sick or wounded sufferers stranded there days after Israeli forces entered the compound.

Israel says Hamas makes use of civilians and hospitals as shields, whereas critics say Israel‘s siege and relentless aerial bombardment quantity to collective punishment of the territory’s 2.3 million Palestinians after Hamas‘ October 7 incursion into southern Israel.

Greater than 11,500 Palestinians, two-thirds of them girls and kids, have been killed for the reason that conflict started, in accordance with Palestinian well being authorities, who don’t differentiate between civilian and militant deaths, whereas round 2,700 individuals are reported lacking.

Some 1,200 folks have been killed in Israel, principally throughout the Oct. 7 assault, and round 240 had been taken captive by militants.