Of all the stories emerging from the horror of October 7 and its aftermath, that of little Emily Hand has been one of the most heartbreaking. 

Initially, her father, Thomas, was told she had been killed in the attack. Emily, then eight years old, had spent the night with her friend, Hila Rotem Shoshani, and was not with her father when Hamas terrorists attacked Kibbutz Be'eri. In utter anguish, Thomas expressed his relief at that news, contemplating the alternative — that she had been taken hostage — as even worse. 

A month later, Thomas learned that Emily was, in fact, alive — that she, Hila, and Hila's mother, Raaya, had been taken hostage and were being held in Gaza. 

The mother and daughter, along with Irish-Israeli citizen Hand, 9, who was at a sleepover with Hila, were taken captive by Hamas terrorists who attacked their community of Kibbutz Be’eri on October 7, killing an estimated 10 percent of the residents, committing atrocities and kidnapping dozens as part of a wider assault in southern Israel that morning.

The three were hiding in the safe room of their home. Raaya wrote to her brother at 12:05 p.m., telling him that she and Hila were being abducted and taken to Gaza.

Emily and Hila were among those released in the second group of hostages (on Saturday). The sheer joy of Thomas at being reunited with his young daughter (who turned nine while in captivity) was unmistakable. 

The first hug! Here's the moment Emily Hand ran into the arms of her father.

And right after, Hila Rotem Shoshani ran into the arms of her uncle. Her mother is still being held hostage in Gaza. pic.twitter.com/c0sSvqaoNc

— Aviva Klompas (@AvivaKlompas) November 26, 2023

The reunion was bittersweet, as Thomas was faced with having to let Emily know that his first wife, Narkis Hand, who had helped raise Emily since the death of her mother from cancer when she (Emily) was two and was like a second mother to the little girl, was among those murdered on October 7.

Narkis Hand, 54, was murdered by Hamas terrorists in her home in Kibbutz Be’eri on October 7.

Family members said that her body was found on the kibbutz near her mother’s house, after they believed she climbed out the window of her own home and tried to flee, but was shot dead. Hand’s mother, Simcha, survived.

Hand, a native of the kibbutz, is survived by her adult son Eden and daughter Natali, whom she had with her ex-husband Tom Hand, mother Simcha, as well as her siblings.

She also helped raise 9-year-old Emily Hand, the daughter of her ex-husband from his subsequent second marriage, whose mother died when she was a toddler. Emily was kidnapped by Hamas on October 7 and released on November 25.

Following Emily's return, Thomas sat down with CNN's Clarissa Ward to discuss how his daughter is doing now that she's back with her family. While it's not surprising to learn that young Emily is clearly traumatized, Thomas' emotional description of their reunion and of what his daughter has shared since her return is heartrending. 

"All of a sudden, the door opened up and she just ran. It was beautiful — just like I imagined it, you know, running together. I squeezed — I probably squeezed too hard.

...

"The most shocking, disturbing part of the meeting was...(whispering) she was just whispering. Couldn't hear her. I had to put my ear on her lips, like this close, and say, 'What did you say?' And she said, 'I thought you were kidnapped.'

...

"She thought I was in captivity."

Asked by Ward what Emily has told him about her time in captivity, Thomas revealed: 

"I thought she was in the tunnels, but she wasn't in the tunnels. They were actually fleeing from house to house. She didn't like it — referred to it as (Gaza) she says the 'koofsa' — 'the box.' So you have to say, like, 'How long were you in the box? The koofsa?' She said, 'A year.' And, apart from the whispering, that was like a punch in the gut."

Asked about the photograph taken shortly after they were reunited, in which Emily is shown with a solemn look on her face, Hand observed, "Yeah, she's almost staring, isn't she? A little bit of a disconnect with everything going on around her."

Ward asked if Emily has cried since her return. 

"Oh yeah. Yeah. Last night, she cried until her face was red and blotchy. She couldn't stop. She didn't want any comfort. I think, I guess she's forgotten how to be comforted. I just had to wait until she came out of it by herself. And she knows how to do that. She's a very determined little girl, very strong. I knew that her spirit would get her through it." 

Thomas related the heartache of having to break the news to Emily that Narkis had been killed when asked whether she understands what happened on October 7. 

"Yeah. Yeah, unfortunately, she does. How do you tell her, you know, 'Your second mum is dead, killed, shot'? When we got back to the hospital, I asked the psychiatrist, you know, whether...what should I do? She said, 'You've just got to tell her straight. It's the best way.' Okay. Yeah. That was very hard because we told her and, you know, her little eyes glazed up, and she just went (gasp) — took a sharp, sharp intake of breath. Terrible thing to tell a child. But then, as they recommend that you have to close the book. It sounds cruel, but you have to stop that hope. You've got to stop that. It has to be final. 'Narkis is dead.'"

Ward asked Hand what the next step will be for Emily and her family.

"The future is obviously to get Emily back to health. And we will do that along the way. But the next thing is — along the way — is that we have to get all the children, obviously, all the women, all the men, all the hostages have to come back. They have to be brought back."

Among those still being held by Hamas is Hila's mother, Raaya, also like a second mother to Emily. Raaya was kept with the girls throughout their captivity and then inexplicably separated from them shortly before they were due to be released. 

Thankfully, there is no indication that Emily was physically abused in any way other than having lost a significant amount of weight during her time in captivity. Her psychological scars will, no doubt, endure. Ward noted that Emily's whisper was due to being so frightened to use her voice, adding that Thomas shared that the only Arabic word Emily learned while she was held hostage was the word for "Be quiet."