Dublin native Thomas Hand with his daughter Emily Hand during their interview with Piers Morgan.Piers Morgan Uncensored, YouTube
Thomas Hand, a native of Dublin, and his Irish-Israeli daughter Emily Hand appeared on Piers Morgan Uncensored on January 15, 100 days since the Hamas attacks in Israel.
"She's as tough as nails, god love her," Thomas told Piers during their interview on Monday, January 16 after Piers pointed out how Emily, who primarily speaks Hebrew, had wiped away her father's tears.
Emily was initially thought to have been killed in the October 7 attacks in Israel; she was sleeping over at a friend's house when the Hamas attacks began.
Thomas, a native of Dublin who lived in England before moving to Israel in 1992, made headlines after the attacks when he told CNN he felt it was a "blessing" that his daughter had been killed as opposed to being kidnapped by Hamas.
However, later in October, Thomas was informed there was a "high chance" that Emily was, in fact, still alive and likely taken hostage.
“That was like being punched in the stomach by a professional boxer," Thomas recounted to Piers.
“Your heart sank, your mind went into overload of what’s going to happen to her. That was the worst moment, just falling into that bottomless pit of despair, that was awful.”
Along with the families of other hostages, Thomas traveled to both Ireland - where he met with Irish political leaders - and the US to drum up support for not only the release of his daughter but also the other hostages.
On November 21, Qatar announced that successful joint meditation efforts involving Israel, Hamas, Egypt, and the US resulted in an agreement for a humanitarian pause as well as the release of hostages.
Emily was part of the second group of hostages released on November 25.
“I was lucky enough to have that moment," Thomas told Piers on Monday about learning that Emily would be released. "We’re still waiting for other families to have that moment.”
Emily’s treatment in captivity was not as bad as Thomas had imagined.
“As far as terrorists go, they were reasonably good," Thomas said. "They didn’t sexually abuse her like they’ve done with many others. She wasn’t raped even as a small child, which they have done to others.
"She wasn’t beaten, tortured. They were reasonably humane, shall we say.
“They kept them on very small rations of food, even though they had lots of food.
“In my head, I’m thinking, ‘She’s not going to be getting lots of food because probably they won’t have lots of food.’
“But she’s told me they [Hamas] had lots of food, they could smell it being cooked, but they weren’t given any.
“One day they made a mountain of very small donuts and they were each given one each.”
Thomas previously said that his daughter thought she had been in captivity for two years.
“You know the old saying, when you’re having fun, time flies. I guess her two months felt like a year. She wasn’t enjoying it very much," Thomas told Piers.
“The only activity that they could do was play cards and do drawing. They had to be very, very quiet; there was no conversations. So that would get boring after a very short time.”
While the treatment was "reasonably good," Emily of course has felt the effects. Thomas said that on one of her first nights home, she hid under her duvet crying.
"One of the first things you want to do is comfort your child," Thomas said. "She wouldn't let me touch her. She'd forgotten how to be comforted by a parent and that was very hard. I just had to let her cry it out."
However, Thomas said Emily is "doing incredibly well" now - she speaks nearly at full volume, is "eating like a horse," and that her nightmares have subsided.
At the end of the interview, Piers asked Thomas to ask Emily how she felt upon their reunion.
"Happy," she said.