October 7 · Personal story
Emily Hand
Abducted
October 7, 2023
Abduction location
Friend Hila Rotem-Shoshani’s home in Kibbutz Be’eri
Current outcome
Released alive · November 25, 2023
Released to Israel after 50 days in captivity and reunited with her father, Thomas Hand.
01
Before October 7
Emily was eight and lived in Kibbutz Be’eri with her father Thomas Hand, who was born in Ireland and moved to Israel. Her mother Liat died of cancer when Emily was about two and a half. Thomas’s first wife Narkis, the mother of his older children Aiden and Natali, helped raise Emily as her own daughter. On October 6, Emily went to her friend Hila Rotem-Shoshani’s home in the same kibbutz for a sleepover.
02
October 7
The next morning, Emily was at Hila’s home with Hila and Hila’s mother, Raya. At 7:58 a.m., Raya wrote to her brother that Emily was with them and had slept over. As alarms and gunfire continued in Be’eri, Raya kept in touch with her brother and cousin. She wrote that Hila was frightened and that it was becoming hard to calm the girls. Around noon, attackers entered the house and forced the three from the safe room. Raya managed to send her brother a final message: “They are kidnapping us.” Emily was taken from her friend’s family home, not from her own home. The three were taken through the kibbutz and then to Gaza.
03
Captivity
The Hand family first received a report that Emily had been killed. Thomas later described how, fearing what captivity could mean for an eight-year-old, he felt relief at the news; weeks later officials told him she was probably alive and held in Gaza. The earlier report was wrong. Emily’s ninth birthday fell on November 17, while she was still captive. After her return, Thomas said she told him she had thought the 50 days lasted a year. She shared some memories gradually, including being made to move from house to house. Her father said he wanted to know more but would wait for her to speak when ready.
04
Return
Emily was released on November 25, 2023, after 50 days in captivity and reunited with her father. Thomas said that when the door opened, Emily ran to him, just as he had imagined. He noticed how much her face had changed. She recuperated at the Safra children’s hospital surrounded by family. Thomas had brought their dog Johnsie to the reunion. He said that Emily initially whispered rather than speaking at ordinary volume, and that one of the first things she wanted was a Beyoncé song. He also had to tell her that Narkis, her second mother, had been killed on October 7.
05
Life after return
In an interview published on July 2, 2026, Thomas said Emily was doing well and was a happy child living her life. He also described some difficulty at night, especially when she went to bed or was alone at home. After her return, he had worked to rebuild their relationship while raising her without Liat or Narkis. He said the memory of October 7 still sometimes felt as close as yesterday.