Emily Damari, 28, is a British-Israeli dual national whose mother has campaigned tirelessly for her release since she was kidnapped by Hamas militants in October 2023.
Named as one of the first three women hostages to be released Sunday under a ceasefire deal between the Palestinian militant group and Israel, Damari remains the last British hostage being held in the Gaza Strip. Some of the other hostages however have links to the UK.
Born in Israel after her British mother, Mandy, moved there in her 20s, Damari is a fan of pop superstar Ed Sheeran and Premier League football club Tottenham Hotspur, whose fans have often chanted her name during matches while she was in captivity.
Damari, whose father is Israeli, was kidnapped in southern Israel by Hamas on October 7, 2023 during its unprecedented attack that killed around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, triggering the devastating conflict between Israel and the militant Palestinians in the Gaza.
Israel’s ensuing campaign to eradicate the militants has destroyed much of Gaza, killing some 46,900 people, most of them civilians, according to figures from the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry that the UN considers reliable.
Damari was at home in Kfar Aza, a kibbutz near Israel’s southern border with Gaza, where she grew up, when Hamas gunmen stormed her home, injuring her hands and legs in the process.
Her beloved dog Choocha was killed with a gunshot to the neck, according to her mother Mandy Damari.
– ‘Bravery, courage’ –
Mandy Damari has relentlessly lobbied Israeli and UK leaders for her daughter’s release, and voiced fears she might never see her alive again with her ordeal now stretching to more than 460 days.
In December, Damari said she was “terrified” her daughter and other female hostages were exposed to “the constant threat of sexual assault” while in captivity.
She has described Emily as “beautiful” and “charismatic” and boasting a “cheeky smile”.
In a recorded message marking the attack’s first anniversary last October, Damari said her daughter had a mixed sense of classic British humour and “Israeli chutzpah”.
“I always say that ‘I love her to the moon and back’. I need her back with me now, alive, before it is too late for her,” she said.
Mandy Damari, who was born and raised in Surrey, southern England, added that Emily was a fan of a London Zoo and enjoyed listening to British singer Adele as well as “Shape of You” singer Sheeran.
She also highlighted her daughter’s love of the Spurs, which Emily would go to watch at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium whenever she was in the UK visiting family.
“She’s one of our own, she’s one of our own, Emily Damari, bring her home,” Spurs fans have sung.
The supporters have also distributed flyers with an image of Emily, with her long, curly dark hair, wearing a Spurs scarf and released hundreds of yellow balloons during a game to raise awareness of her plight.
Mandy Damari had said in October that she feared Emily had been forgotten.
And she revealed how hostages freed in 2023 had told her about Emily’s “bravery and courage and even her laughter and the way she helped hold everyone together even in the worst times”.
