Emily Damari, a British-Israeli woman who was taken captive during Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, massacre and held for 471 days in Gaza, underwent a series of surgeries on her hand and leg on Sunday due to complications from the wounds inflicted on her by the Palestinian terrorist organization.
In a statement from Sheba Medical Center at Tel Hashomer in Ramat Gan before the operation, Damari said she “fully embraced” her scars, explaining, “To me, they represent freedom, hope and strength.
“My recovery will take time and my hand will never fully recover, but the intense pain I had for a year and a half due to the nerves being sewn together after my first operation at Shifa Hospital in Gaza is now no longer with me and the large scar, that was caused by an open, festering wound that did not heal for four months because of the conditions of the tunnels I was held in, is now looking better,” she continued.
Damari and two other Israeli hostages were handed over by Hamas to a team of the International Committee of the Red Cross in Gaza on Jan. 19, as part of the ceasefire agreement with the terrorist organization.
Following a medical examination and reunion with their mothers at an IDF reception point near the Gaza border and their subsequent transfer to the hospital via helicopter, Sheba General Hospital Director Dr. Yael Frenkel Nir told reporters that the women’s physical condition was good enough to allow them to focus on reuniting with other family members.
Damari lost two fingers when she was shot by Hamas gunmen during the Oct. 7, 2023, kidnapping from her home in Kibbutz Kfar Aza.
Emily’s mother, Mandy, said on Sunday that her daughter had been “sewn up like a pin cushion” in Gaza, leaving her in considerable pain.
Hamas did not provide anything besides an expired bottle of iodine during her captivity, Mandy Damari noted, adding that “it is nothing short of a miracle that she did not contract a life-threatening infection.”
For long stretches of time, the group kept her in its underground tunnels network with no sanitation or access to clean water, Emily Damari said.
“It was shocking but not surprising to see how emaciated some of the other hostages were when they came out. Hamas has created hell on Earth, the conditions down there are unimaginable,” she said.
“I want to thank President [U.S. President Donald] Trump again for securing the deal to get me home. Please help us to bring home Gali, Ziv and all of the remaining hostages as well, before it is too late for all of them,” Damari pleaded, referencing twin brothers Gali and Ziv Berman, her close friends from Kibbutz Kfar Aza who were abducted alongside her during the attack.
Israeli assessments indicate that Palestinian terrorist groups in the Strip are holding 59 hostages. Of these, 24 are believed to be alive—all men—while 35, including three women, are believed to be deceased. Two of the living hostages and three of the deceased are foreign nationals.
