Tom and Emily Hand have suffered the unimaginable. Last year, on October 7, Hamas kidnapped then-eight-year-old Emily from Kibbutz Be’eri in southern Israel. She was freed from captivity last November during a weeklong cease-fire deal. In the early days of the war, her father Tom believed Emily to be dead. Since getting his daughter back, he has spoken to the press and the public to advocate for the remaining hostages and hostage families.
The Hand family spoke last night at a rally commemorating the anniversary of November’s hostage deal.
“I am extremely lucky to have got my little Emily back in one piece,” Tom said to a crowd at Tel Aviv’s Hostages Square. “I cannot imagine how terrified she must have been. When being taken from Be’eri, Emily saw dead people — people she knew and recognized, lying on the road. It was so bad she thought that everyone she knew — including me — were killed or being killed.”
Sweet Emily added: “I know what it’s like to be there so I don’t want to imagine what it’s like for those who are there now. . . . Noa [Argamani] came back, but Itai [Svirsky] won’t. We have to bring the hostages back before it’s too late. Bring them home now!”
I met Tom in March. When he spoke about Emily’s kidnapping, he cried — I remember wondering how many tears he must have shed in the months after October 7:
For the past five months, despite all that his family has been through, Tom has stayed in the spotlight to speak up for Hamas’s remaining hostages. That means that for the past five months he has had to relive the worst day of his life and the death of his daughter’s mother. When he speaks about that day, he still cries.
Last night, as Tom told the story of that day, again he cried.
When Emily came home last year, Tom told media that she was “very white, she had not seen the sun in over a month. She was very quiet, afraid to make any kind of noise out of her mouth. At that point, we did not know how traumatized, terrorized or broken she was.” At the rally this weekend, Emily had full cheeks and a loud voice as she spoke about the hostages who remain in Gaza’s tunnels. In this season of thanksgiving, I remain grateful for all of the families, individuals, and former hostages who continue to speak up for those captured on October 7, even though the pain of reliving the horror of that day must be crippling. Ten-year-old Emily, whose mind should be occupied by her favorite pastimes, like Brazilian dance and judo, continues to be a model of bravery.