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Daily Mail
6 days ago
- Health
- Daily Mail
EXCLUSIVE 'I had a plan to do it': Chilling confession of freed British-Israeli hostage Emily Damari who revealed that she had planned her own suicide during 471 'terrible' days in Gaza captivity
Freed British-Israeli hostage Emily Damari has revealed how she fought a Hamas guard and planned her own suicide during 471 'terrible' days held in Gaza. The 28-year-old has spoken for the first time on how she was held in houses booby trapped with dynamite and in terror tunnels so silent 'it murders the ears'. Emily, who lost two fingers on October 7 when terrorists shot her hand, also concealed that she has had relationships with women from the Islamist extremists fearing they would kill her if they found out. Incredibly, she earned the respect of her captors who dressed her in a hijab and snuck her onto the roof of a Gaza apartment to glimpse the sea during a terrifying bombardment. It comes as the IDF released haunting 'trophy pictures' they found on a Hamas hard drive that the terror group took of Emily during surgery in Gaza on the day she was kidnapped. She is seen unconscious on an operating table in Al-Shifa Hospital with blood splatters across a hijab she was forced to wear. Another image shows her sat captive in an ankle-length black and white dress, her bloodied left hand bandaged up during her first days held hostage in a Gaza apartment. Emily was cowering in a bomb shelter with her best friend Gali Berman, 27, at home in Kfar Aza by the Gaza border when Hamas stormed the kibbutz and slaughtered her neighbours. The terrorists killed Emily's dog, shot her in the hand and leg, and dragged them both into Gaza along with Ziv, Gali's twin brother. A Palestinian doctor calling himself 'Dr Hamas' then carelessly stitched the nerves in Emily's hand together leaving her in endless pain for over 15 months in captivity. The British-Israeli reveals her ordeal for the first time to Israeli journalist Yigal Mosko for Channel 12 documentary 'Through Emily's Eyes' which aired last night. She was hugging her pillow in the shelter with Gali when she heard the terrorists breaking her window before they broke in and shot her left hand. 'The bullet entered and split my fingers,' she said. 'I shouted to him, 'Gali, they destroyed my hand!' The pain was so extreme she passed out, and came to moments later to the terrorists shouting at her beloved pet Cockapoo Chucha. 'I hear them saying, 'Dog! Dog!' in Arabic. Chucha is sitting, looking at them, and they shoot her. Chucha's bullet is the one that entered my leg.' Emily was then lifted and carried into her own car, alongside Gali, and they were blindfolded and kidnapped into Gaza. But the defiant 28-year-old ignored the terrorists and removed her blindfold – to see that Gali's twin brother Ziv is also next to them. 'I say to Zivi, 'Zivi, Gali is with us,' and I say to Gali, 'Gali, Zivi is with us.' Like that a few times, so they would know.' Emily is then forced to put on 'prayer clothes' and taken to Al Shifa hospital. 'I enter a room with a corpse,' she said. 'I see blood is everywhere. I say, damn, what are they going to do to me here? 'Then the doctor arrives, he says to me: 'Hello, I'm Dr Hamas.' The doctor jabbed a needle in her arm and she fell unconscious, later waking to the man telling her she has lost two fingers – to which all she can muster in response is 'ok'. Emily turned to find another hostage, Romi Gonen, 24, who had been shot in her right arm fleeing the Nova festival, beside her. They managed a brief introduction before being separated – but they would meet 40 days later and spend the rest of captivity together. After the surgery, Emily was initially held with Ziv in a family's home in Gaza and was nearly killed when shelling destroyed the house. They were then moved to a sixth floor apartment, locked in a room with a closed window – but Emily opened it when she saw Israeli drones passed and showed her tattooed arm, hoping they would be able to identify her. Then, in another truly remarkable act, Emily managed to convince her guard to let her see the sea after about 30 days in captivity. It shows the strength of personality the British-Israeli has that the terrorists agreed to put her into a hijab she could sneak onto the roof - in the middle of an IDF raid. 'I look, I see the smokestacks of Ashkelon,' Emily said, referring to towns near where she lived. 'I see Sderot, I see Be'eri, I see Kfar Aza, I see everything. 'I see all the explosions, all the smoke…. Gaza burning. Now, above us, really above us, literally above us, like above our heads, are five drones and he tells me: 'Put your hand down, don't point.' 'He gets stressed that I'm pointing. He tells me: 'Put it down, it's forbidden to point.' 'I came down from the roof, and I'm thinking, what just happened to me is unbelievable. I stood with a hijab on a roof in Gaza. There's no way any hostage in the world did that.' Emily also detailed how each house she was held in was surrounded by cameras, adding that - after the successful rescue of Noa Argamani in June last year - 'came the TNT stage'. The guards told her that if the IDF came 'we will detonate'. They simply had to add an AA battery into the circuit to blow up the house with dynamite. She was held with a female hostage at one point who disobeyed the Hamas commander – a former bodyguard for Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh. 'It reached a point where he pushes her,' Emily said. 'My whole head spun. I started speaking Hebrew, saying: 'What are you doing?' 'I pushed him back. He grabs my hand, I push his hand away. I raised my voice, telling him: 'Now I'm going to shout that there are hostages here! If you don't bring your commander here… Get us out of this house!' 'I really started to completely lose it.' Asked if she was scared she would get killed, she said: 'No weakness in front of them. I'll push, I'll get a bullet, fine – so I'll die. So I won't be in captivity, thank you very much.' After 40 days she was separated from Ziv and told: 'You will go to the girls, and we are going underground.' It is the last time she saw Ziv, who remains in captivity with Gali. Though scared of going underground, Emily was determined to 'not show any weakness in front of them', so, as she was being led into the tunnels, she chose to focus on how incredible it was that she was getting to see the tunnels she had heard so much about. 'I entered like in a frenzy,' she said. 'I'm like, 'Wow, I'm in Hamas' tunnels!' When she met fellow hostages inside, they said: 'You're the first one to enter the tunnels like that.' But over the coming days, a sense of horror seeped in. 'There's silence in the tunnels,' she said. 'They say deafening silence, but it's not that… It murders the ears. It's terrifying.' It was here that she met Romi again and they became each other's other half – one having lost use of their left hand, the other their right. Emily pushed Romi to stop crying and to survive for their families, but there were days when it got too much – and the two girls discussed suicide. 'There were difficult days,' Romi said. Asked if they contemplated suicide, Emily added: 'Sure, I had a plan, everything, how to do it.' While Emily stayed strong, the thing that nearly broke her was fearing her British mother Mandy, 63, and brother Tom had been killed in Kfar Aza on October 7. But last summer the terrorists allowed them to watch television one night where Mandy was seen in the Knesset holding a picture of her daughter. Romi described the moment. 'She got up and said, 'Hey, mum…' Emily was shaking, she couldn't breathe. Really that was the most moving moment in captivity.' Emily told how she had to conceal the fact that she has had relationships with women in the past. Asked if she thought they ever knew, she said: 'No. They absolutely must not know such a thing. 'For them, this thing is sick. Anything to do with homosexuality is forbidden. We asked them once, 'If your brother was gay, what would you do?' 'He said: 'What do you mean? I would murder him.' Emily was constantly quizzed on why she wasn't married, but would tell them she was a 'good girl' and 'saving myself'. She stayed fit inside by doing sit ups and push ups. Despite a lice infestation, they kept spirits up by holding 'lice fight' where they would bet which would beat the other. Finally, in January, Emily and Romi were told they were the first to be freed as part of the hostage deal. But Emily, a Macabi Tel Aviv fan, was horrified when her captors told her she had to wear a red outfit to leave – as it is the colour of her rival football team. 'I told him, 'I'm not coming out if I'm wearing red.' In the end, her captors – who had grown to call Emily 'Sajaiya' – a term of respect for heroes – obliged. Since being freed, Emily has fought to free Gali and Ziv and the remaining 58 hostages – of whom around 20 are believed to be alive.
Daily Mail
11-05-2025
- Sport
- Daily Mail
'She's one of our own': Newly freed Israeli-British hostage Emily Damari gets a hero's welcome watching Spurs
Hundreds of Spurs supporters gathered outside the Tottenham Hotspur stadium on Sunday morning to welcome back newly released British-Israeli hostage Emily Damari. Lifelong Tottenham fan Emily, 28, was given a hero's welcome by almost 300 football fans in her first public appearance in London since she was freed from Hamas captivity earlier this year. Speaking to the cheering crowd Emily Damari - who was kidnapped from her home in Kibbutz Kfar Azar and spent 471 days as a hostage in Gaza - said: 'I am very happy to be here [in the UK]. 'Thank you to everyone who prayed for me, who shouted my name without knowing me. 'Thank you I don't have the words to say how grateful I am. All of you are amazing. I hope Spurs are going to win today!' Wearing a Spurs shirt, Emily - who returned to Israel in January during a hostage-exchange and ceasefire deal - added: 'I want to give a special thanks to all the Jews in the diaspora, but especially to the UK Jewish community, who came out to support my mother and my family campaigning tirelessly to help secure my release. 'May the other 59 [remaining] hostages be home soon. 'Gali and Ziv Berman [they are] very, very, very close friends of mine and I hope they bring them home today.' The 27-year-old twins Gali and Ziv Berman were kidnapped alongside Ms Damari from their safe room on October 7 2023 in the devastating terror attack that killed around 1,200 people. The brothers are amongst the 59 people who are still being held hostage in Gaza by the Palestinian terror group with just 24 still thought to be alive after almost 600 days of imprisonment. Earlier this week, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said while they had believed 24 hostages were still alive, he was now uncertain about the fate of three of them. Meanwhile Emily's mother Mandy Damari said: 'I am over the moon. 'I am so glad she's back and here with the people who supported her all the time. 'We need all the 59 hostages back [including] Gali and Ziv who are Emily's friends.' As campaigners chanted 'she's one of our own, she's one of our own, Emily Damari is finally home', Emily released 59 yellow balloons into the air to signify the 59 remaining Israeli hostages in Gaza. Further chants of 'bring them home now' and 'Am Yisrael Chai [the Jewish people live] also rang out in the streets outside the football club ahead of their highly anticipated match against Crystal Palace. Since the start of the football season dozens of Tottenham fans have gathered outside the stadium ahead of every game to demand the immediate release of Emily Damari. In her honour they have released yellow balloons during matches, stuck up missing posters of hostages, and tied yellow ribbons to lamp posts along White Hart Lane. Once inside the stadium, Emily was greeted by several current and former high-profile Tottenham and England football players including midfielder James Maddison, Ledley King, Gary Mabbutt and Ossie Ardiles. Tottenham Hotspur fans with a banner outside the stadium celebrating the release of Emily Damari, who was kidnapped during the deadly October 7, 2023 attack. Itai Galmudy, Tottenham fan and founder of Stop the Hate, the group behind Sunday's celebratory event, said: 'We organised this to say welcome back to Emily. 'For too long we have been waiting, dreaming that she [Emily] would be released. 'And to be quite frank we knew it was a real possibility that this day will never come. 'We campaigned for her here in the rain, sun, in the good times, the bad times. 'And to have her coming to the Spurs stadium today is the crescendo of this entire campaign. 'We could not have imagined a better outcome. Mother-of-five Tracy Levi, 53, who attended the event on Sunday, added: 'It is quite surreal seeing this person that you know from a sticker in real life. 'I can't even begin to imagine what she went through, and the strength of resilience she has shown should be a lesson to everybody. 'We haven't forgotten about any of the hostages and we will keep fighting until they are all home.'
