Emily Damari, a 29-year-old Israeli hostage with dual British citizenship, for the first time detailed the harrowing 471 days of her captivity in Gaza, revealing in an interview with the Daily Mail inhumane conditions, including incarceration in tiny, fetid cages within Hamas's terror tunnel network.
Freed in January alongside 32 others, Damari's defiant image with her wounded hand became a global symbol of courage.
For nearly four months, Damari endured the stench of human waste and a floor crawling with cockroaches in the damp, hot tunnels. Shot on October 7, 2023, losing two fingers and with a bullet lodged in her leg, her physical pain was constant. Yet, she describes the "cages" as even worse.
"Sometimes there would be up to six of us at a time, squeezed in a tiny cage just two meters by two meters," she recounted to the Daily Mail.
Her nightmare began at Kfar Aza kibbutz on October 7, 2023. After rockets began, terrorists stormed her room, where she lay with her best friend Gali Berman and her dog, Choocha. "Then they shot my left hand," Emily said. Choocha was killed by the same bullet that struck her leg. Dragged outside, she saw her peaceful kibbutz "become hell," filled with fire and dead bodies. When a terrorist offered to take her to a hospital, she understood it wouldn't be Israeli. "I took his gun, put it to my head and said: 'Shoot me! Shoot me!'" she recalled, preferring death over capture.
Damari's ordeal included a chilling encounter at Al-Shifa Hospital, where a doctor, smirking, introduced himself as "Dr. Hamas" before amputating her damaged fingers. Separated from her best friends, twin brothers Gali and Ziv Berman, early in her captivity, she still fears for their lives. "They are probably in a cage," Emily stated to the Daily Mail, adding, "They are abusing them. There isn't a lot of water. It is probably unimaginably hot for them." Visibly angry, she implored, "Come on already! What is taking so long?"
Life in the tunnels was "stinky, hot, humid, damp," with only a hole in the ground for a bathroom and a gallon jug for water. The constant silence was particularly tormenting, making her "go crazy." Despite the horrors, Damari maintained a routine, doing hundreds of sit-ups daily, earning her the nickname "John Cena" from her guards. She also formed a "twin-like" bond with fellow hostage Romi Gonen, using their working limbs to help each other.
Her astonishing strength of character shone through. Damari revealed she grabbed a terrorist's gun, begging him to kill her rather than be kidnapped. On another occasion, she debated killing her captors after persuading a guard to give her his weapon.
Damari faced immense psychological torment, particularly from one family who hosted them, telling her, "Nobody cares about you." This pushed her to the brink of a suicide pact with Romi. Yet, her resilience prevailed. In early January, she had a premonition of release and, on January 19, her premonition proved true. Even then, her defiance remained: when handed a red top for her release, she refused, stating, "Tell your commander, Emily Damari doesn't wear red."
Now home, Damari undergoes complex surgeries, but her focus remains on the 50 hostages still held, including the Berman twins. She urges US President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu "to do everything in your power to bring my Gali and Zivi home."
She added, "You saved my life, now you must do the same for the last 50 hostages. Only then can we start to heal."
Her reunion with her mother, captured in emotional footage, fuels her hope that Gali and Ziv will soon share a similar embrace.
(Israel National News' North American desk is keeping you updated until the start of Shabbat in New York. The time posted automatically on all Israel National News articles, however, is Israeli time.)