EMILY Hand’s dad has told how the youngster is recovering “much faster than we could have dreamed” after 50 days in Hamas’ clutches.
The Irish-Israeli hostage, nine, was left too afraid to speak and physically weak after being abducted on October 7 and held for weeks.
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Emily was on a sleepover with her pal Hila Rotem, 13, and Hila’s mother, Raya, 54, when they were kidnapped by cowardly terrorists.
The Disney fan spent her ninth birthday dodging bullets as gunmen herded her between houses in Gaza.
She ate just a quarter of a pitta a day and lost more than half a stone during her horrifying ordeal.
The youngster was a shadow of herself when she was released in a prisoner exchange on November 25.
But doting dad Thomas Hand says little Emily is improving every day and getting her voice back.
He told The Sun: “She’s resilient. She’s a very powerful girl with a lot of inner strength.
“She was weak, she’d been starved, basically for 50 days.
“Her voice was less than a whisper. It was almost non-existent because Hamas had threatened her with a knife, all of them with a knife if they raised their voices above a whisper.
“So that I thought was going to be a very difficult thing to get over.
“But the recovery has been much, much faster than we could have dreamed of.”
Thomas says Emily has using therapies such as horse riding to get her confidence back.
He added: “We put her in certain therapies and horse riding dog training, anything to give her back some confidence, some feeling of control, because she’d lost all control of her life.
“And so, if you imagine sitting on a massive horse, full-sized horse and you are in control of it, it gives you back a lot of confidence.
“Singing classes, theatre classes all to get her voice back to and so she could project her voice a bit more.”
Thomas said Emily, despite being just a child of nine, is “much more mature” because of her ordeal.
Give us every hostage back, living or dead.
Thomas Hand
But he added: “My ultimate dream is for Emily to fully recover. Live a normal life. And not have not have any recurring nightmares or triggers that will put her into anxiety.
“There are a few still, but I hope, of course, one day it will all go away and live a normal life.”
Thomas now hopes other families can soon feel the joy he has felt having his beloved daughter back.
He has insisted the remaining hostages must be released – having suffered more than 250 days in captivity.
The dad added: “. I know what my family went through, so I cannot imagine doubling and trebling and quadrupling that timescale for the families, for the hostages themselves.
“You take one person but they’ve got a mother and a father and brothers and sisters, and then immediate friends and relatives.
“We want peace. We all want peace.
‘Bring my grandad home’
A HEARTBROKEN grandson marking 250 days since his beloved grandad was taken hostage by cowardly Hamas terrorists has just one demand – bring him home.
Like many families desperately waiting for news on their loved ones, former Israeli footballer Daniel Lifshitz is pleading for more to be done to save his grandparent from the terror group’s clutches.
Activists for human rights, Yocheved and Oded Lifshitz worked hard to make Kibbutz Nir Or a haven for those fighting for peace.
But theirs and so many lives were torn apart on October 7.
The loving couple’s home was burned down – and they were dragged back to Gaza.
Daniel Lifshitz told The Sun not enough is being done to rescue those still captive – including his 84-year-old grandfather Oded.
The former Israeli journalist and his wife Yocheved, 85, spent years helping others, including transporting patients from Gaza to Israel for medical treatment.
In a twisted irony, they were hauled into an abyss of conflict when Hamas brutes ambushed their home and kidnapped them – marking the final time Yocheved saw her husband.
Oded, who suffers from lung disease, was shot as he frantically tried to protect himself and his wife from being swept away by Hamas.
Their home was burnt to ashes as thugs took Oded away on a motorbike.
Yocheved meanwhile was ruthlessly flung on another motorbike before being taken into the depths of Hamas’ spider web network of underground tunnels.
She was forced to walk for five or six hours through the wet sprawling network of passages and was kept there for more than two weeks.
When Yocheved was finally released late in October, she was wheelchair-bound and frail.
While Daniel says his grandmother has recovered physically from her ordeal, he says she is mentally struggling.
They are grappling with 220 of silence – as the last update they had on Oded’s condition was from another hostage who was released.
Daniel says they are holding onto the hope of being reunited with Oded – but fear for him as he was shot as he was abducted and suffers from several health issues.
“Let’s say there’s 120 remaining. Obviously they’re not all going to be alive. But give us all the bodies back.
“Give us every hostage back, living or dead.
“We can then have a ceasefire and try and get back to some kind of normality.
“We have no other choice. Give us back the hostages.”
Hundreds of unforgiving Hamas terrorists stormed the border into Israel, leaving behind a trail of destruction and 250 days of torment.
More than 1,200 people – most of them innocent civilians – were brutally slaughtered.
Read more on the Scottish Sun
A further 240 hostages were cruelly dragged back over the border – with 116 remaining in Gaza, including many who have tragically died.
Israeli authorities say 41 are believed to be dead – but officials privately fear the number could be much higher.
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TIMELINE OF WAR SO FAR
Oct 7, 2023: Hamas gunmen launch horror attack killing thousands of innocent civilians and taking hostages
Oct 7, 2023: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says Israel is at war and prepares revenge airstrikes on Gaza
Oct 19, 2023: Yemen’s Houthi terror groups start attacking cargo ships in the Red Sea linked to Israel including US and UK vessels
Oct 21, 2023: Aid trucks are sent through the Rafah border into Gaza
Oct 27, 2023: Israel launches ground offensive in Gaza
Nov 1, 2023: People try to evacuate Gaza completely as war ramps up but many forced to stay
Nov 15, 2023: Israeli troops enter Gaza’s biggest hospital, Al Shifa, after a siege of several days as they believe Hamas are working inside
Nov 21, 2023: Israel and Hamas announce a ceasefire to last seven days and see the exchange of hostages and Palestinian prisoners
Nov 2023: Truce ends with only half of hostages returned
Dec 1, 2023: Fighting starts up again with first round of airstrikes in weeks
Dec 4, 2023: Israeli forces launch huge ground assault in southern Gaza, towards the main southern city of Khan Younis
Dec 12, 2023: Countries call on Israel to find a new ceasefire deal to stop civilian casualties
Jan 11, 2024: US and British warplanes, ships and submarines launch retaliatory strikes across Yemen
Feb 29, 2024: More than 100 Gazans die as they queued for humanitarian aid with Israel and Hamas having different views on what happened
April 1, 2024: Israeli air strikes kill seven aid workers for the World Central Kitchen charity
April 1, 2024: Iran’s embassy hit in Damascus by a suspected Israeli airstrike killing several military officers and a top general
April 13, 2024: Tehran responds to the embassy strike by firing hundreds of missiles and drones at Israel but most are intercepted
April 19, 2024: Israel hits back at Iran with precision strike near a nuclear site in Isfahan
April 23, 2024: Israel gear up for six-week assault on Rafah
April 24, 2024: Hostage claims 70 people held captive have died after being bombed
April 29, 2024: Israel’s PM Benjamin Netanyahu could be issued with an international arrest warrant over alleged war crimes in Gaza
May 4, 2024: Hamas claim ceasefire deal has been agreed before Israel labels the move a “ruse” and shuts down any negotiations
May 10, 2024: Hundreds of thousands of Rafah civilians told to flee city as Israel prepares planned assault to eliminate all of Hamas
May 17, 2024: Several bodies of slaughtered Israeli civilians are discovered in Gaza and returned home to their loved ones
May 19, 2024: Benjamin Netanyahu and Hamas terror chief Yahya Sinwar face arrests on war crime charges
May 22, 2024: Parents of Israeli hostages release video of Hamas thugs threatening to rape female soldiers they’ve captured and left bloodied
June 8, 2024: Four hostages including Noa Argamani rescued by IDF
June 10, 2024: UN Security Council votes in favour of US resolution supporting the proposal outlined by Biden