This is the story of Emily Hand. It will shatter your heart and then put it back together again. Partly, at least. Emily saw and experienced things no child should ever have to go through. She wasn’t the only one. But I feel a special connection to her and her father, because they are so much like me.

Emily is nine years old. She is the daughter of Thomas Hand, who is Irish and came to Israel as a kibbutz volunteer. Like I did. Thomas volunteered on kibbutz Be’eri and met a woman called Narkis, who he married and had two children with: Eden and Natali. The family lived in Be’eri. Later in life, when the children were teenagers, Thomas and Narkis divorced. Thomas met Liat Korenberg and they had a daughter together: Emily Tony Korenberg Hand. Sadly, Liat died of cancer when Emily was only two years old. So Emily lived alone with her father in kibbutz Be’eri. But she also spent a lot of time with Thomas’ ex-wife, Narkis, and her half-siblings, Eden and Natali. Narkis was like a mother to Emily. The family might have been unusual, but they were happy and close. This beautiful picture from Narkis’ facebook page shows that. In the photo, Narkis, Eden, Natali, Thomas and Emily are all sitting around the dinner table together. I can’t imagine a better way to be co-parents.

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On October 7, 2023, Emily was at a sleepover at the house of her friend, Hila Rotem. At 6 in the morning, the terrorists reached the kibbutz. In interviews, Emily’s father describes locking himself into the safe room in his house, hearing the terrorists outside, and exchanging text messages with his ex-wife. He describes the terror and helplessness he felt, knowing he couldn’t protect his daughter. If he had gone outside, he would have been murdered, which would not help Emily.

When at the end of the day, finally, the IDF regained control over the area, kibbutz Be’eri was a smoking, bloodstained ruin. Thomas had survived. But Emily was gone. So were her friend Hila and Hila’s mother, Raaya. And Narkis Hand had been murdered in her house. The happy blended family had been torn apart, half of it gone. The pain this kibbutz went through is indescribable. More than 120 people were brutally murdered and another 29 taken hostage.

Thomas was told that Emily was dead, that her body had been found. His first reaction was relief. He thought that being abducted to Gaza would have been a fate worse than death. He said in the Daily Mail: “They’d have no food. They’d have no water. She’d be in a dark room filled with Christ knows how many people, and terrified every minute, hour, day, and possibly years to come.”

But the initial report was wrong. Emily’s remains were not found, and later she was seen in security footage, being loaded into the bed of a terrorist truck with Hila and Raaya Rotem, and driven away. Thomas’ worst fear had come true: Emily was one of the hostages. But at the same time, he had been given hope again. Emily might come back home.

Time passed. Thomas and his adult children campaigned for the release of the hostages. They flew to London and Ireland and gave interviews. Emily turned 9 years old in the tunnels of Hamas, but she had no idea it was her birthday.

Then, after eight long weeks, a ceasefire was negotiated and an agreement was reached for some of the hostages to be freed. Emily was on the list but didn’t come home the first day. But finally, on November 25, after 49 days of captivity, Emily Hand was released into the embrace of her father.

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I will never forget sitting in front of the tv, every evening of the ceasefire, desperately tired but refusing to go to bed until I knew who was coming home that day, and until I had seen them escorted into Israel by the Red Cross, and reunited with their family. The tears I cried every evening, happy tears but also tears of sadness, for those who didn’t come home, and those who would never come back again. Seeing Emily run to her father, and seeing Thomas’ smile, was everything. It healed something in me.

Emily was released together with her friend, Hila Rotem. The girls had clung together in the long weeks of captivity, under the care of Hila’s mother, Raaya. Raaya was not released that day, but fortunately, a few days later, she was. There was no rhyme or reason for that, apart from Hamas’ psychological warfare tactics – breaking up families and putting them through mental anguish is their favourite thing to do. Apart from causing death and destruction. They are Death Eaters.

This picture shows Emily and Hila walking hand in hand to the Red Cross ambulance, flanked by armed and hooded terrorists.

Emily had gone through hell and come back from it. But her pain is not over. Far from it. First, she had to be told that Narkis Hand, her second mother, was dead.

Narkis Hand was 54 years old when she was killed. She was described as a kind and generous person and a wonderful mother. She loved dancing and travelling and was the centre of her blended family. She leaves a gaping hole in her community.

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Since Emily has been back, she has told her family bits and pieces about her experience in the tunnels of Gaza – a place she calls “the box”. There was no sense of time in the darkness. She thought she had been there for a year. She thought her father had been kidnapped as well and was held somewhere else. She had lost weight and was very pale. And she whispered. The children had been threatened and told to be quiet, so she only spoke in whispers. She had learned how to say “be quiet!” in Arabic. She cries at night, for her stepmother, for her friends, for the trauma she went through. But she is alive, she is safe, and she will be ok again.

The Irish Prime Minister described Emily as a child “lost and found” – an unfortunate choice of words, that doesn’t even begin to describe the reality of what Emily went through. She was stolen in the middle of a massacre, abducted and held hostage underground for 49 days, then finally released under immense pressure. This could have been me, my child, or any of my friends. By pure chance of geography, it was not. But Emily and Thomas are forever etched onto my heart.

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