Freed Hamas child hostage Emily Hand, now 11, has stopped needing to climb into her father's bed at night to feel secure, three years after she was snatched from Kibbutz Be'eri on October 7, 2023.
In an exclusive interview with the Mirror, her father, Irishman Thomas Hand, said his daughter was growing stronger every day and had only in the last month or so stopped needing to pull her mattress up to his in the middle of the night.
He said: "She's stopped pulling her mattress right up to mine in the middle of the night, and is now almost entirely independent - much to my relief. And she's also just recently stopped calling me on her mobile phone to come and fetch her from a friend's house after dark on our temporary kibbutz."
Moving back to Be'eri
Emily was just eight when she was kidnapped by Hamas gunmen and had her ninth birthday while being held for 49 days. She and her father, like many of those attacked on Kibbutz Be'eri, on the border with Gaza, have been given prefab houses on a kibbutz further from the border that was not attacked on October 7.
Thomas said: "We're really looking forward immensely to moving back to our first kibbutz, Be'eri, which until the attack was seen by me and by Emily as paradise.
"I'm still a bit nervous though - literally and figuratively - about trying to build our lives up again there. Many houses and buildings on our kibbutz remain wrecked, including the kindergarten and playground. And it's so close to Gaza, from where we were attacked."
He and Emily are due to go back to Be'eri for a "very emotional reunion of all our kibbutz members and friends" on October 7, the third anniversary of the attack that left 102 people from his kibbutz dead and led to 34 others being taken hostage. All but four of the kibbutz's hostages eventually returned alive.
Horse riding and hopes to be a vet
Horse-riding has been Emily's main outdoor pursuit and, according to her psychologists, a means of making her feel she is in control rather than a buffeted victim. "With her love for animals -- though she's no longer obsessed with snails -- she hopes one day to become a vet," said Thomas.
Emily's beloved pet dog Johnsey still sleeps cuddled up to her every night. The dog came with Thomas in an Israeli military vehicle as Emily was about to be brought back across the Gaza border into Israel. Thomas knew Emily loved her pet so much she would hug the animal first, "and I could then get the second hug".
He said: "I thought in her child's mind she would feel like I had betrayed her - by not coming to save her from the gunmen." However, Emily rushed straight into her father's arms, with Johnsey yapping at her heels; a moment Thomas still looks back on with delight and amazement.
Surprise visit from Noa Argamani
Recently Thomas and Emily got a surprise visit from one of the most famous hostages, Noa Argamani, who had been held with Emily for most of her 49 days in captivity, alongside her friend Hilla, who was kidnapped when she was 12.
Thomas said: "Noa just turned up unannounced, and she and the two girls sat outside on our porch and chatted and laughed. These sort of meetings with ex-hostages take place occasionally, and though they stir up hard memories, they're in some way therapeutic."
Argamani had been filmed terrified on the back of a kidnapper's motorbike, then, after Emily and Hilla's return, had disappeared for over a year until being rescued in a raid by Israeli troops.
Thomas added: "Back on our destroyed kibbutz tomorrow, I'll be thinking of all of those 102 dead people. I knew all of them so well. The freedom-loving Western world should help us make sure we are never subjected to these vicious terrorist onslaughts again."
More than 1,200 people were killed when Hamas gunmen stormed through the border fence on October 7, 2023. Thirty-six of them were children. A total of 251 people were taken hostage. All living hostages were freed by the end of 2025.
The Palestinian Ministry of Health said the death toll of Gazans stood at more than 74,000 with 172,000 injured. Israel launched air strikes immediately after October 7, and a full-scale ground invasion on October 27, 2023.
