Ex-hostage Emily Hand, 11, urges Netanyahu: ‘Go make a deal now, because this can’t go on’

Former hostage Emily Hand, 11, a member of Kibbutz Be’eri, spoke at a kibbutz rally today, held in Kibbutz Hazerim, where kibbutz members are currently living until Be’eri is rebuilt.

Hand describes being taken hostage by Palestinian terrorists with Hila Rotem Shoshani and Raya Rotem on October 7, 2023.

“The pictures of the people around us aren’t just pictures,” she says. “These are people who were kidnapped to Gaza, and some were murdered. Just think for a moment about the word ‘kidnapped.’ Who would have believed that we would have to say that people from our own country were kidnapped?”

Hand then speaks directly to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

“Bibi, I’m speaking to you directly — go make a deal now, because this can’t go on,” she says. “And I want to tell you: the conditions there are harsh. We must bring everyone back!”

Hand, who was 8 when she was taken hostage, adds: “Opening the fridge is a privilege. Going to sleep in a bed is a privilege. On that black Saturday, I had plans to meet friends, to dance in the studio with my sister, to cook food. But no. That didn’t happen, because instead, I got a one-way ticket to Gaza.”

Hand lost her mother to cancer when she was just 2 years old. When she returned home from captivity, her Irish-born father, Thomas Hand, had to tell her that her “second mother,” Narkis Hand — Thomas Hand’s former wife, and mother to Emily’s two half-siblings — was killed on October 7.

“It doesn’t make sense that we’re going to Hostage Square, visiting cemeteries, sometimes flying abroad — all because of what happened. Our hearts have been held captive there for far too long,” says Hand.

Shaked Haran, daughter of Avshalom Haran, who was murdered on October 7, and whose seven family members — including her mother, her sister, brother-in-law, their two children and two cousins — were taken hostage and later released in the two consecutive deals, also speaks and calls the last 593 days “our struggle.”

“It’s hard, exhausting, and Sisyphean — but it’s ours,” says Haran.

“It’s not fair that after everything we’ve been through as a community, we still have to fight. But that’s the reality. And there’s tremendous power in shifting the spotlight from what was done to us, from what was taken from us — to what we can do for our brothers and sisters in distress.”

She says that everyone has a role in the struggle for the hostages, and it won’t happen without a struggle.

“I’m reminding us here, too — we have each other,” says Haran. “We must continue to be there for one another, for the families of the hostages. Unlike any natural process, here time does not ‘heal all wounds.’ The reality for the families of the hostages is only getting harder with each passing day, and we must stand strong with them and by their side.”

Additionally, Kibbutz Be’eri members Natali Ben Gal and Inbal Bechar, who survived the massacre, also spoke.