Emily, a 9-year-old Israeli-Irish girl released by Hamas on Saturday, is “terribly afraid of making noise” and “now only whispers,” her father Tom Hand told the British daily The sun.
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“When she came back, I literally had to put my ear to her lips to hear what she was saying,” Tom Hand said in an interview published Wednesday.
“She was a normal, happy, loud child, but now she’s a whisperer,” he continues. “She must have been ordered to be quiet for so long that she is still afraid to make noise.”
AFP
Emily, who turned nine years old as a hostage on November 17, was kidnapped by Hamas on October 7 while staying with a friend, 13-year-old Hila, on Kibbutz Beeri. Her friend was also released on Saturday.
Emily, whose mother died of cancer when she was two and a half years old, was initially declared dead before she was among the hostages.
AFP
In the Sun interview, her father says she was constantly persuaded by Hamas to escape the Israeli army.
The ceasefire between Israel and Hamas entered its sixth day on Wednesday with a new expected exchange of Israeli hostages for Palestinian prisoners.
Since Friday, Hamas has released about 10 women and children a day who were kidnapped during its bloody October 7 attack in Israel, while releasing three times as many Palestinian prisoners.
The ceasefire agreement, negotiated with the support of Egypt and the United States, has already enabled the release of 60 Israeli hostages and 180 Palestinians held in Israeli prisons.
Israeli authorities estimated the number of people kidnapped and taken to Gaza on October 7 during the unprecedented attack by the Palestinian Islamist movement at around 240. 1,200 people died in Israel, the vast majority civilians.
In retaliation, Israel pledged to “destroy” Hamas and bombed the Gaza Strip relentlessly until the ceasefire on November 24th. According to the Hamas government, 14,854 people were killed in Israeli attacks, including 6,150 under the age of 18.
