Former hostage Emily Damari recalled once getting in a physical altercation with a Hamas captor who shoved a fellow hostage, in an often lighthearted interview broadcast Saturday that showcased her spunk and love of soccer.
“I started speaking in Hebrew, not Arabic — ‘What are you doing?’ — and pushed him back,” she told Channel 12. “He grabbed me by the arm, and I pushed his arm away, until others separated us.”
“Would I have gotten a bullet? Fine, then I’ll die and won’t be in captivity, thank you very much,” she said. “Sucks for my family, for my friends, but I’ll be out of this nightmare.”
Damari apparently got on her captors’ nerves. “I asked them everything — how they built the tunnels, how much money they make off of them — until they had enough of it,'” she said, adding that the captors nicknamed her “Fuduli,” meaning curious in Arabic. Other nicknames included “spring, Mogli, Tarzan” and “Shajaa,” the latter being Arabic for “brave,” she said.
She also recalled keeping secret from her captors that she is gay.
“They can’t know something like that, they consider it sick,” she said. “We once asked one of them, ‘What if your brother were gay’? He said: ‘I’d murder him.'”
Speaking to Channel 12, Damari recounted “two of the craziest moments of my life”: Seeing her mother on Israeli television, nine months into captivity, the first time Damari learned her mother had survived the Hamas onslaught of October 7, 2023; and when the Red Cross came to bring her back from Gaza in January, as part of the then-nascent ceasefire-hostage deal between Israel and Hamas.
She confirmed Hebrew media reports that at the time she refused her captors’ demand that she wear a red jumper, the color of the Hapoel Tel Aviv soccer team, rival of her favored Maccabi Tel Aviv. Ultimately, Damari wore green.
Damari was kidnapped from her home in Kibbutz Kfar Aza as thousands of Hamas-led terrorists stormed southern Israel to kill some 1,200 people and take 251 hostages, sparking the war in Gaza.
Terrorists who invaded Damari’s home shot and killed her dog and wounded her left hand, causing her to lose two fingers.
She was snatched in her own car alongside her good friend and neighbor Ziv Berman, who remains in captivity along with his twin brother Gali.
Damari was held with Ziv for the first 40 days of their captivity, while Gali was held elsewhere. Since her release, Damari has campaigned vigorously for the twins’ freedom.
Former hostage Romi Gonen, who spent the latter 14 months of her captivity with Damari and was released alongside her, said Damari’s “super power” was “her golden heart, bless her.”
“She always put me ahead of her, even with food,” said Gonen. “It was like that when we were five girls and when we were 11 people — Emily would always eat the least so everyone would have enough food.”
Terror groups in Gaza still hold 58 captives, 35 of whom have been confirmed dead, including a soldier killed fighting in the 2014 Gaza war.