Emily Hand, 9, describes moment she was taken hostage by Hamas

One of Hamas’ youngest hostages recalls knife-point kidnapping and 50 days spent in captivity one year on from attack

Emily Hand, one of the youngest hostages taken by Hamas on Oct 7, described the moment she was captured at knife-point in a rare interview.
Originally from Dublin and an Irish citizen, nine-year-old Emily was bundled into a car by members of the terror group from Gaza.
She then spent 50 days held hostage in the enclave before being released as part of a prisoner exchange deal.
Emily, who was eight at the time of the attack, was staying with a friend at the Be’eri Kibbutz when Hamas struck.
“When they arrived, we just opened up. Because if we held the door they’d shoot and the bullets would hit us,” she told Channel 4 in a documentary to be aired on Wednesday.
“So we just opened the door.”
Emily is one of the youngest survivors of the Hamas-led attacks on Oct 7 to speak about her harrowing experience in southern Israel. 
“They threatened us with a knife. If we resist, they’ll kill us,” Emily said, describing the moment she was taken from a small Israeli community known for being home to many Left-leaning peace activists.
“They put a blanket over us so that we won’t see and maybe run away. So we won’t know the way back.”
Emily was abducted along with her friend Hila Rotem-Shoshani and Hila’s mother Rayaa.
“There were about five to seven terrorists. They grabbed me by the shirt and said ‘you’re coming to Gaza’,” Mrs Rotem-Shoshani said. “We saw corpses everywhere.”
Hila said that Emily was terrified and kept asking what the terrorists were saying.
Tom Hand, Emily’s father, said he was advised by psychiatrists not to interrogate his daughter about her experiences.
He said: “I only get to know whatever little snippets come out.
“Like last night in the car, she just told me that she saw at least 12 dead bodies at the fence…people that she knows, dead at the side of the roads.”
Mr Hand vowed they will return to their kibbutz home if Emily is not too frightened to go back to the scene of her kidnapping.
“If the people of the south don’t go back to the south, Hamas has won and that’s not gonna happen. I’m going back,” he said.
Once popular as a holiday destination, the Be’eri kibbutz is now associated with the Oct 7 attack, in which 101 Israeli civilians and 31 security personnel were killed. During the course of the massacre, 125 of the kibbutz’s homes were also damaged or destroyed.
“We used to be a kibbutz of about 1,200 members. We lost 100 people – almost 10 percent of our community dead. Wiped out,” Mr Hand said.
One Day in October airs on Channel 4 on Oct 9 at 9pm
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