{"id":83197,"date":"2023-11-20T18:27:34","date_gmt":"2023-11-20T18:27:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.estaql.com\/family-of-girl-9-held-hostage-by-hamas-say-israel-should-give-them-what-they-want-world-news\/"},"modified":"2023-11-20T18:27:34","modified_gmt":"2023-11-20T18:27:34","slug":"family-of-girl-9-held-hostage-by-hamas-say-israel-should-give-them-what-they-want-world-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/estaql.com\/seo\/family-of-girl-9-held-hostage-by-hamas-say-israel-should-give-them-what-they-want-world-news\/","title":{"rendered":"Family of girl, 9, held hostage by Hamas say Israel should ‘give them what they want’ | World News"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Family of girl, 9, held hostage by Hamas say Israel should ‘give them what they want’ | World News<\/h2>\n

Family of girl, 9, held hostage by Hamas say Israel should ‘give them what they want’ | World News<\/p>\n

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The father of a nine-year-old girl kidnapped by Hamas has said Israel should “give them what they want” to secure the release of his daughter.<\/p>\n

Emily Hand, who is Irish-Israeli, is among 240 hostages who were abducted by Hamas <\/strong>gunmen 45 days ago.<\/p>\n

But despite reports negotiators are nearing a deal to release some of the captives, Emily’s father, Thomas Hand, is doubtful.<\/p>\n

Follow live: Three premature babies left behind in Gaza<\/strong><\/p>\n

“Until I have notification that she has been released, I won’t believe anything,” he told Sky News.<\/p>\n

“There have been so many different reports that turned out to be not true. So no, I can’t keep going into hope and to a high, and then crash down. It’s just too hard.”<\/p>\n

If an agreement is reached it could see the release of Palestinian prisoners from Israel<\/strong> – but that doesn’t bother him.<\/p>\n

Speaking after a press conference at the Israeli embassy in London, Mr Hand said: “Give [Hamas] what they want. I don’t care if they give 100 terrorists for her return or each person.<\/p>\n

“I don’t care how many, just get my daughter back.”<\/p>\n

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<\/div>
\n Image:<\/span>
\n Thomas Hand said he wants Israel to secure his daughter’s release
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\n <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
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<\/div>
\n Image:<\/span>
\n Emily was feared dead in an attack but is now believed to be a Hamas hostage
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\n <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

Emily was having a sleepover at a friend’s house when she was abducted from Be’eri, a kibbutz in southern Israel.<\/p>\n

Initially, Mr Thomas was told his daughter was among the dead, only to learn weeks later that she may be alive.<\/p>\n

The mental torture he has endured has taken a very visible toll – with shaking hands and tear-stained eyes.<\/p>\n

He’s lost two stone in weight since the 7 October attacks.<\/p>\n

Read more:
Premature babies evacuated from Gaza arrive in Egypt<\/strong>
Gaza’s largest hospital is ‘death zone’ with mass grave<\/strong><\/p>\n

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<\/div>
\n Image:<\/span>
\n ‘Give [Hamas] what they want. I don’t care if they give 100 terrorists… just get my daughter back.’
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\n <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

Fighting back emotion, he said he tries not to picture his daughter’s situation because it’s “too painful”.<\/p>\n

“If I did that, I would go into a very dark place.<\/p>\n

“You say you put things in boxes but in my head that would be a coffin. So now I put her in a bubble and I keep her at the back of my head.<\/p>\n

“I don’t go there very often because I can’t, I would imagine the worst.”<\/p>\n

But last Friday, the despair was impossible to escape.<\/p>\n

It was Emily’s 9th birthday, which was marked by her image being projected onto a giant billboard in Times Square in New York to highlight her plight.<\/p>\n

“It was the darkest day. Looking at the billboard, that was very hard,” Mr Thomas said.<\/p>\n

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<\/div>
\n Image:<\/span>
\n Emily was having a sleepover at a friend’s house when she was abducted
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\n <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

Last year she had a circus-themed party but this year, in Hamas’s “dark tunnels”, he believes she would have had no idea of the date.<\/p>\n

“She is a beautiful, sweet, innocent kid,” he says.<\/p>\n

“But she’s also a very determined little girl which I hope will get her out of there.”<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

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Family of girl, 9, held hostage by Hamas say Israel should ‘give them what they want’ | World News<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Family of girl, 9, held hostage by Hamas say Israel should ‘give them what they want’ | World News Family of girl, 9, held hostage by Hamas say Israel should ‘give them what they want’ | World News The father of a nine-year-old girl kidnapped by Hamas has said Israel should “give them what they […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7678],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-83197","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-estaql"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/estaql.com\/seo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83197","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/estaql.com\/seo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/estaql.com\/seo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/estaql.com\/seo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/estaql.com\/seo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=83197"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/estaql.com\/seo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83197\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/estaql.com\/seo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=83197"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/estaql.com\/seo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=83197"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/estaql.com\/seo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=83197"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}