‘I’ve come back to life’: Released hostage Emily Damari says ‘I am the happiest in the world – just to be’
JERUSALEM – Emily Damari, the dual British-Israeli citizen who was released – along with Romi Gonen and Doron Steinbrecher – as part of the first phase of the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas was said to be “doing much better than any of us could have ever anticipated,” according to her mother, Mandy, who released a statement via the Hostages and Missing Families Forum on Monday.
“Yesterday, I finally got to hug Emily, just as I had dreamed of doing for a long time,” she says, thanking the public for its unwavering support over the past 15 months. “You are all an integral part of Emily’s family.”
Emily Damari wrote on her story:
“Thank God, thank my family, thank my best friends. I’ve come back to life. I am the happiest in the world – just to be. You’ve shattered my heart with excitement.”
God bless her. pic.twitter.com/rPczV9dh3d
— Vivid. (@VividProwess) January 20, 2025
“It was a great joy to catch a glimpse – along with the rest of the world – of Emily’s strength, determination and charisma when she was released,” she continues. “In Emily’s own words – she is the happiest woman in the world; she has her life back.”
Mandy Damari praised her daughter’s “extraordinary resilience,” although she cautioned Emily’s long road to recovery was just beginning, while requesting privacy for her and the rest of the family. She also struck a note of national sadness mixed with her own elation at her daughter’s return, and urged the ceasefire remain intact “until the last of the hostages return to their families.”
Emily is home pic.twitter.com/JCMmKEAhKr
— Mandy Damari (@DamariMandy) January 19, 2025
The first images of Emily showed her with a heavily bandaged left hand and what appeared to be two missing fingers. Reports in Israeli media suggested she lost those fingers during the Oct. 7 massacre, in which she was snatched from her home on the Kfar Aza kibbutz, and after she had picked up her dog and attempted to comfort it in an effort to calm it down. The terrorists shot and killed the dog and wounded her in the hand.
She had been sheltering in a safe room with neighbor Gali Berman – who was also kidnapped along with his twin brother Ziv – and another neighbor. Before their abduction, the group managed to send a selfie, which only reached Berman’s mother later that evening.
Despite the joy at the return of these three young women, there were ugly scenes at the hand-over in Gaza, as Hamas tried to manipulate the PR aspect until the very last minute. Hundreds of men, many now wearing Hamas uniforms and sporting green banners, with dozens of them also weapons, jostled the women as they were transferred from International Red Cross – an organization which like UNRWA has a lot of explaining to do – vehicles, to finally cross the border to Israeli territory.
Just as in November 2023, the last time hostages were released, Hamas cynically took advantage of its position, attempting to show a more supposedly more merciful side of hostage-taking. On exiting the van, Damari looked as though she tried to shove one of the Hamas terrorists out the way; a final “screw you” on her way to freedom.
There is joy on the streets of Israel today, but it is tempered by the dual stresses of not knowing which of the remaining 30 hostages due to be released in this first phase are alive and who is dead. While there is obviously curiosity about the fate of all of the remaining hostages – including those who may very well not see their homeland again for years – if at all – Hamas is likely to continue its psychological torture, as it toys with Israelis’ emotions.
And the focus falls on the Bibas children – four-year-old Ariel, and two-year-old Kfir, who just celebrated his second birthday, both of which were in captivity. There will be joy unconfined if they are returned alive; however, the sight of tiny body bags repatriating their remains would witness an outpouring of national grief on an unimaginable scale.