Little Emily Hand who was brutally kidnapped by Hamas after they shot her parents, is reportedly fighting to get back to normal according to her father, Thomas Hand, though she will only talk in whispers. (This is the father who was initially told his daughter had been slaughtered.)
“We’ll only know what she really went through as she opens up,” he told CNN. “I want to know so much information … but you have to let them, when they are ready, come out with it.”
Fortunately, the youngster was held with her friend Hila Rotem-Shoshani and Hila’s mother Raaya before the children were released last Saturday, who took care of her as if she were her own child. (Contrary to the terms of the agreement, the mother was not released with the children.)
He describes the moment they were reunited:
“All of a sudden the door opened up and she just ran. It was beautiful, just like I had imagined it, running together,” Thomas said. “I probably squeezed her too hard,” he added, giving his view of the now iconic video of the reunion where he greets his daughter with her nickname “Emush.”
“It was only when she stepped back that I could see her face was chiseled, like mine, whereas before it was chubby, girly, a young kid face.”
Like the other hostages, Emily has lost body weight in her 50 days of captivity and Hand said he had never seen her so pale.
But what surprised him the most :
“The most shocking, disturbing part of meeting her was she was just whispering, you couldn’t hear her. I had to put my ear on her lips,” he said. “She’d been conditioned not to make any noise.”
Thomas says his first priority is to help Emily heal, while he is working to get Raya back home as well as other hostages.
“We have to get Raaya back for Hila, back for Emily, back for justice,” he said.
“Don’t go silent on us now,” he implored the world. “Bring them home, bring them home.”