From the Liveblog of
Tuesday, January 21, 2025
Emily Damari’s mother posts pic showing daughter’s hand unbandaged; thanks those worldwide who campaigned for her release
Mandy Damari, whose daughter Emily was released from Hamas captivity on Sunday, posts a new photo of the two of them, showing Emily’s hand unbandaged after she lost two fingers when shot by Hamas terrorists on October 7, 2023.
“Thank you to everyone in the UK and around the world who supported the campaign to bring Emily home, and for all your messages here on X. You are amazing and we love you all,” tweets the Surrey-born, London-raised Mandy.
Thank you to everyone in the UK and around the world who supported the campaign to bring Emily home, and for all your messages here on X. You are amazing and we love you all ????
94 hostages still need us????️???? pic.twitter.com/nuRVj6n8tt
— Mandy Damari ???????? (@DamariMandy) January 21, 2025
In some of the first pictures the family cleared for publication after her release, Emily, a dual Israeli-British citizen, was seen waving her bandaged left hand in a phone call to her relatives, in an image widely seen as emblemizing her courage and resilience.
The gunmen who burst into her home at Kibbutz Kfar Aza on October 7, 2023, shot her dog, she reportedly told her family and friends in her first conversations with them on Sunday evening, and she was hit, too, as she tried to comfort her dying pet.
In an Instagram post on Monday, the released hostage, 28, wrote that the outpouring of love and support had made her “heart burst with excitement.”
“Thank you, thank you, thank you,” she wrote. “I’m the happiest in the world just to be.”
Emily’s post was signed with the “rock on” emoji, in a nod to the gesture her hand now permanently makes.
