In a KAN News interview with Thomas Hand and his daughter Emily, Hand expounded upon his daughter’s captivity in Gaza.
Emily was kidnapped from kibbutz Be’eri by Hamas terrorists on October 7. She was released on November 25 as part of a deal exchanging Israeli hostages with Palestinian prisoners.
Speaking of his daughter’s recovery process following her 50-day captivity, Hand said, “She’s very, very good, making progress, recovering. The rest of us are broken now.”
Code words to recount captivity
He added that his daughter “doesn’t say a lot” regarding her captivity, but rather “has code words for Gaza, terrorists…”
Turning to Emily, he asked: “What’s Zeitim? [Hebrew for olives]?”
Emily promptly responded: “Terrorists.”
As the camera panned onto a whiteboard with a list of Emily’s code words, Thomas explained, “Any food or item that she doesn’t like, she transfers that word into code.”
Asked by the interviewer why she has codes, Emily said: “Sometimes it is uncomfortable for me to say these words.”
Thomas expounded upon the conditions in which Emily was detained. “I believed she was down in the tunnels because that’s the safest place, that’s where they would treasure their hostages, but no, from the time she was kidnapped, they ran from one house…next morning, they ran to another house… presumably taking one step ahead of the IDF.”
In Gaza, Emily was mostly with men. When asked whether there was even one nice man in captivity, or as Emily termed it “the box,” she answered categorically “no.”
At one point, Thomas recounted, a terrorist told the then-eight-year-old Emily: “Uskut” [Arabic for be quiet] or I’ll kill you with this knife.”
Hand told KAN that following her captivity, Emily “was immediately a bit more mature.”
“She’s insecure,” adding, “She always wants to know that the door is locked, that the shutters are down; she wants to feel secure in the house.”
‘IDF must complete its mission in Gaza’
With regard to a hostage deal, He noted that Israel has to release the Palestinian prisoners “within reason.”
Hand stated, “It’s not a hostage deal, it’s a swap of hostages for convicted prisoners…It’s a very, very big risk. That’s why we have to completely destroy Hamas, from the top to the bottom.”
“In my head, at the time she was captive, I knew the IDF had to do everything in its power to destroy Hamas primarily and do everything they could to find and retrieve the hostages.” Even though he was aware Emily might be killed in the process, this was a price he was willing to pay. But he emphasized, “So long as we destroy Hamas…if not all the terrible things that happened are pointless.”
“We have to finish the job completely; I don’t care what the world says.”
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