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‘Utterly heartbreaking’: Grieving Israeli father speaks of relief learning missing 8-yr-old daughter is dead

October 12, 2023 | | Print Article

Knowing the sick way Hamas operates, one Israeli father is glad to know his eight-year-old daughter was murdered by them instead of kidnapped.

Appearing on CNN this Wednesday, Thomas Hand said he lost track of the whereabouts of his daughter when the attack began on Saturday because she’d decided to spend the night at a neighbor’s home.

But, he continued when he later learned that she was found dead versus having been kidnapped and taken to Gaza, he was relieved.

Listen:

“They just said we found Emily. She’s dead. And I went ‘YES!’ I went ‘YES’ and smiled, because that is the best news of the possibilities that I knew. That was the best possibility that I was hoping for. She was either dead or in Gaza. And if you know anything about what they do to people in Gaza, that is worse than death,” he said.

“That is worse than death. The way they treat you. They’d have no food, they’d have no water. She’d be in a dark room filled with Christ-knows how many people, and terrified every minute, hour, day, and possible year to come. So death was a blessing. An absolute blessing,” the grieving father continued.

According to CNN journalist Clarissa Ward, he later told her something else.

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“He went on to say to me, what kind of a crazy world is this that we are living in, that a father would actually say this, that a father would actually feel this way,” she revealed after her interview with Hand.

“But he said that others in the community had felt the same way, that in some way, there was some mercy in knowing that little Emily at least went quickly and did not have to live through the horrors that more than 100 hostages are currently going through,” she added.

Hand’s words left many social media users floored:

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According to CNN, for Hand the terror attack began when he started receiving text messages about Hamas terrorists breaking into his neighbors’ homes.

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“All he could think about was his eight-year-old daughter Emily – one of the tallest in her class, with honey blond hair and pale skin that tanned in the sun, a talented dancer and singer, a fun, bright girl, he said,” CNN notes.

He reportedly moved into the community 30 years ago, intending originally to be a temporary volunteer but deciding over time to make it his permanent home. His wife, Emily’s mother, died several years ago.

“The community is close-knit; residents told CNN they eat meals together and share everything, including their salaries, which go into a communal treasury and are redistributed equally among all the families,” CNN notes.

Such communities are known as a kibbutz. This particular one reportedly “leans left,” meaning many saw the Gazans next door as their neighbors.

“There were people from Gaza who worked in the kibbutz, and they were a part of the community. They’d bring their children to the kindergarten in the kibbutz. When they couldn’t come to work there anymore, we began collecting money from the community and there is now a fund that keeps them alive,” local resident Michal Pinyan told CNN.

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Dovetailing back to Hand, he said the first indicators of a terror attack were the sirens going off at 6:30.

“Hand was not particularly worried; the alarms are not uncommon in the kibbutz. Emily was sleeping over at a friend’s house, and he was sure both children would be safe,” according to CNN.

“Until I heard the shots. And it was already too late. If I had known … I could have maybe ran, got her, got her friend, got the mother, brought them back to my place. But by the time I realized what was happening, it was already too late,” he recalled.

Vivek Saxena
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