An Irish father living in Israel who said it was a “blessing” that his daughter died and was not kidnapped by Hamas now says he regrets his words after learning his soon-to-be 9-year-old son is still alive and held hostage by terrorists .
Emily Hand’s father, Thomas, said Monday he was holding on to hope that the 8-year-old was alive — and regretted expressing relief when he thought she had died in the surprise Hamas attack on Kibbutz Be’eri on Oct. 7.
“In some ways, I’m sorry that – just because of some of the things I said – some of the things that might have put him in danger – we went ahead,” he told the BBC in Israel.
In an interview after the attack, when he believed his daughter was among the dead because of “mistaken identity,” he called her death “the best possibility,” saying what Hamas is doing to people in Gaza is “worse than death.”
Her father stated this week that it would be his daughter’s birthday this month – but he may not know she will be 9 years old because she has been living under the torture of Hamas for a whole month.
Emily Hand, an 8-year-old Israeli-Irish girl who was reportedly killed by Hamas, is now believed to be alive and a hostage in Gaza. Family Circulation Emily’s devastated father, Tom Hand, said she would have been 9 when she was taken hostage by Hamas. Family Distribution
“She’s most likely in a tunnel somewhere under Gaza,” Hand told CNN, recalling how an official from the Irish Embassy in Israel told him tests showed Emily’s DNA was not found among the victims at the kibbutz.
“It is his birthday on the 17th of the month [November]. He’ll be 9 years old,” his father said. “He won’t know what day it is. He won’t know it’s his birthday. There will be no birthday cake. No parties, no friends. He’ll just petrify in a tunnel under Gaza. . It’s his birthday.”
Hand previously said her daughter was sleeping with a friend on the night of Friday into Saturday when terrorists stormed Kibbutz Be’eri and slaughtered more than 100 people.
His father previously hoped he had been killed instead of tortured by Hamas terrorists. CNN Emily’s father, Tom, has said he thought his daughter had died of “mistaken identity.” CNN Emily was initially believed to have been killed by Hamas in Kibbutz Be’eri on Oct. 7. Tom Hand via CNN
The father, who was born in Dún Laoghaire and is not Jewish, had come to Be’eri 30 years ago as a volunteer, planning to stay for just a few months — but never left.
She falls in love with Narkis, a member of the kibbutz, and they have two children, Natalie and Aiden. After their divorce, Tom married Emily’s mother, Liat, who died of breast cancer five years ago.
He was reportedly in the process of applying for an Irish passport for Emily at the time of the attack.
Now the devastated father has told the BBC he just wants his daughter back “to love her again, hug her again – and never let her out of my sight.”
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
