Freed From Hamas, but Not Captivity
Visuals by Avishag Shaar-Yashuv
Written by Isabel Kershner and Avishag Shaar-Yashuv
Reporting from Jerusalem
On the morning that Hamas gunmen overran Kfar Aza, a pastoral Israeli kibbutz near the border with Gaza, they burst into Emily Damari’s small apartment, shot and killed her dog, Choocha, and snatched her from her bedroom. She was bleeding from hand and leg wounds.
Then they took the keys to her car and drove her and two neighbors across the fields back into their Palestinian coastal enclave. For the next 471 days, Ms. Damari was held hostage, above and below ground.
Released on Jan. 19, 2025, as part of a brief cease-fire, she emerged ebullient, arriving at a hospital near Tel Aviv wrapped in a large Israeli flag.
When she was reunited with her mother, she flashed a kind of V-sign with her bandaged left hand — a “rock on” gesture made up of her thumb and her index and little fingers because her two middle fingers were missing. That gesture, captured in photos released by the Israeli military, instantly became iconic, a symbol of resilience and survival.
The next morning, she thanked her family, friends and God in an Instagram post and declared, “I have returned to life.”
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