Emily Damari: Lice-ridden and half-starved Israeli hostage’s 471 days of hell

Emily Damari endured 471 days of hell at the hands of Hamas after they executed her pet dog and kidnapped her into Gaza.

The British-Israeli was at home when dozens of terrorist gunmen stormed her kibbutz near the Strip, killing 62 amid the biggest slaughter of Jews since the Holocaust.

She was hiding in the young adults’ area of Kfar Aza and was rounded up alongside her close friends, twin brothers Gali and Ziv Berman, 27.

The gunmen shot dead her golden cockapoo, Choocha, and fired at Emily, which resulted in her losing two fingers from her left hand.

Emily was then taken into Gaza in her own car and held in squalid conditions, forced to go to the toilet in a bucket.

Those freed in November 2023 said she was not allowed to change her clothes and had already got lice as they were rarely allowed to wash.

Captives were left to live on a meagre diet, barely getting half a pitta bread a day.

Her mother, Mandy, received just one sign of life in the past 12 months with no detail as to what condition she was in.

The 63-year-old told the Daily Mail last week: “I know at the beginning she was treated for her gunshot wound, but very shortly afterwards they just threw bandages at her and told her to treat herself.

“She wasn’t given any other medication. How she’s doing I don’t know if the wounds are infected or not infected.”

As Hamas delayed releasing the names of the first three hostages they were set to free it was feared Emily had not survived.

But on Sunday the terror group revealed she was on the list – and hours later she was seen defiantly smiling at her captors.

She was freed alongside Doron Steinbrecher, 31, and Romi Gonen, 24.

Doron, whose mother is best friends with Emily’s mother, was also taken from Kfar Aza. Meanwhile, Romi was taken captive from the Nova music festival, where she had been partying with her best friend Gaya Halifa, 24.

The two girls fled to a dried out river where Gaya’s friend Ben Shimoni, 31, risked his life to drive to pick them up.

But as he drove away they were ambushed and he was shot dead.

The gunmen also shot Gaya, who lay bleeding to death in front of Romi, who was cowering the backseat footwell.

As she tried to take her friend’s pulse, Romi was shot in the hand.

She then called her mother, Meirav, 56, who recorded their agonising phone call.

The Daily Mail published the audio last year, in which Meirav was heard saying: “Romichoo, I’m with you sweetheart. Everything is going to be OK.

“We will go to the hospital – you’ll get better and we will take a trip anywhere you wish together... I am with you my beauty.”

She had to listen as Hamas gunmen grabbed Romi by the hair and bundled her into a car and kidnapped her into Gaza.

Now, after 15 months of hell, Romi’s mother’s words came true and she arrived at Sheba Hospital near Tel Aviv with Doron and Emily.

On arrival, she told Emily’s mother Mandy: “You don’t understand what your daughter has meant to me all this time.”

Medics said the three girls were stable.

Now 95 hostages remain in Gaza of whom 30 are due for release in the next 41 days.

However, fears were growing over the fate of two children thought to be among those still being held by Hamas.

The Bibas children Kfir, who was due to turn two on Saturday, and his four-year-old brother Ariel – the youngest of the 91 hostages still in Gaza – were abducted alongside their parents during the October 7 attacks.

They are apparently going to be among the next group of 30 prisoners to be released.

However, Hamas said in November 2023, the brothers were killed alongside their mother Shiri in an Israeli strike within weeks of being taken.

Israel said it was investigating that “cruel” claim but has not confirmed it, and the IDF has since said it has no intelligence to confirm their status.