EMILY Damari will take years to recover from the hell of Gaza after being “mentally, physically and spiritually broken” by Hamas monsters, says the dad of freed youngster Emily Hand.
Tom Hand, 64, endured the same agony as Emily’s mum Mandy before his eight-year-old daughter walked free after 50 days.
The schoolgirl is smiling again and showing signs of healing after intensive therapy and counselling.
But Emily Damari is older and has endured an awful 470 days at the mercy of savages in Gaza – and will take longer to get anywhere near back to her old self, Tom fears.
Tom told how Emily’s mum Mandy Damarai will have experienced an incredible outpouring of emotion when her daughter runs back into her arms.
Tom – who travelled the globe campaigning for his daughter’s release like Mandy – “It’s unbelievable – it’s like your child, your baby has been reborn.
“From that initial greeting, the next step is you get transported to the hospital in Tel Aviv where they check them physically, observe them mentally and from then on it’s a long process of therapies.
“They give you a room together, totally dedicated to the family – there’s no way I would let my Emily out of my sight for the first few months and there was no way she would leave me.
“You stay glued together for a few months.
“The nightmares last for quite a while but the main difference in personality is that their level of maturity goes up because they’ve gone through stuff nobody should ever go through.
“Her nightmares were about being separated again from her friends and family and being in the hands of these monsters.”
Tom believed Emily Damari’s suffering would have been much greater than his daughter’s and that the healing process will be longer.
He told The Sun: “My Emily was held for 50 days but she was never in a tunnel – she was above ground all the time and wasn’t with the ‘hard-core’ Hamas.
“But Emily Damari – I don’t know – she was probably in tunnels and has probably had a much worse experience than my Emily ever did and for way longer. Times ten…
“She’s also older so her fears of being raped or tortured on on a level way higher than Emily’s so until she’s able to talk and tell her experiences there’s no way of knowing what she went through.
“Emily, even at eight years old understood exactly what had happened to her and knows afterwards what had happened to her and coped – it was the typical resilience of kids.
“My little girl was lucky, she was able to bounce back, but some of the other kids did not – they’re introverted, they don’t want to be with their friends and they stay in the house.
“I’m 100 per cent sure it’s going to take Emily Damari longer to start the process of being able to talk about what happened to her.
“We don’t know what she’s been through but it’s been a very long period and she’s going to be mentally broken, physically broken and spiritually broken.
“That amount of time will break your spirit, not knowing whether you are going to live that day, every day for 470 days. That takes a very large toll.”
Tom described the release process Emily Damari experienced last night – and told how his daughter never felt safe until he was in his arms.
He said: “They’re taken out of the tunnels and don’t know what the hell is going to happen to them.
“Even if the terrorists told them they were releasing them today, we know they play games so there is still no certainty there.
“So the first hope comes when Hamas hand you over to the Red Cross so they think ‘maybe this is real’ then they get handed to the Israeli army.
“But that’s more uniforms to they think ‘are they just playing with me?’
“It’s only when they see the face of their loved one that they know that they’re safe. That’s why it’s so important that they invite a close family member to that exchange.”
Tom told how newly freed Emily’s first major problem following her release will be ravenous hunger after being starved by her evil terrorist captors.
Little Emily was a gaunt ghost of her old self when she was released in November 2023 and her diet had to be controlled to stop her gorging herself sick.
Tom said: “when she first came out she was starving – I mean she was ravenous.
“She wanted to eat like a horse but the doctors in the hospital told us we had to moderate her intake because it would make her sick and do her damage.
“When she was taken she had chubby, eight-year-old girlie cheeks and when she came back you could see her bone structure.
“Also, because she hadn’t seen the sun for 50 days we had to slowly reintroduce her to the sun, otherwise she would just burn up.
“But the biggest sign of her starting to recover was when she slowly stopped whispering.
“She was still in the frame of mind that if she spoke above a whisper she would be stabbed.
“They didn’t put it nicely. They said keep you voice below a whisper or we will kill you with this knife – they said that to an eight-year-old child and her friend. That’s the type of people we are dealing with.”
Tom said Emily Damari – like his daughter – will need treatment from an array of therapists and psychiatrists.
The 28-year-old captive freed yesterday was shot in the hand and wounded by shrapnel – and had her beloved dog Choocha shot dead in her arms on October 7.
But Tom said Emily had benefited hugely from interacting with horses during therapy to rebuild her life and said pets are a huge help to traumatised victims rebuilding their lives.
Tom said: “I can’t recognise horse riding enough but Emily loves animals so we also did dog training therapies.
“We also tried performing on stage – anything in which she would need to project her voice to bring her back to normality.
“My advice to Emily’s family would be that if you have a pet then bring it along – it is the most grounding thing and is great therapy.
“After that, the job is to reconnect them with their past – the food that they like, you know, their favourite food, their favourite drink, anything to do with their old life.
“At the beginning it’s impossible – very impossible – to have anything like a normal life.
“It’s a very long process of therapy, just adjusting to being in a society again.”
What happened on October 7?
ON OCTOBER 7, 2023, Hamas launched a brutal surprise attack on Israel, marking one of the darkest days in the nation’s history.
Terrorists stormed across the border from Gaza, killing over 1,200 people — most of them civilians — and kidnapping 250 others, including women, children, and the elderly.
The coordinated assault saw heavily armed fighters infiltrate Israeli towns, kibbutzim, and military bases, unleashing indiscriminate violence.
Innocent families were slaughtered in their homes, and graphic footage of the atrocities spread across social media, leaving the world in shock.
And as well as attacking people in their homes, they stormed the Nova music peace festival – killing at least 364 people there alone.
The massacre triggered a swift and massive retaliatory response from Israel, escalating into a full-scale war.
The attack not only reignited long-standing tensions in the region but also left deep scars on both sides of the conflict, setting the stage for the 15 months of devastation that followed.
