Emily Damari, who was released by the Palestinian terror group Hamas on Sunday, had asked her captors to first release Keith Siegel, the father of her friend Shir Siegel, N12 reported Friday, citing Emily’s conversations with friends.
Keith, from the United States and aged 65, is said to be in a more serious condition than Emily, 28, who has dual British and Israeli nationality. He is expected to be released later, during the first 42-day phase of the Gaza ceasefire and hostage release agreement, which requires the Palestinian terror group Hamas to release 33 so-called hostages. “humanitarians” – women, children, men aged 50 and over, as well as the sick and injured.
Emily was one of the first three women to be released, followed by four female soldiers on Saturday. This is a violation of the agreement since two civilian women and two children remain in captivity.
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Emily was shot and injured by Hamas terrorists when she was kidnapped from her home in Kibbutz Kfar Aza and lost two fingers. The terrorists who broke into her house shot her dog, she reportedly told family and friends. She was shot while trying to comfort her dying pet.
In response to the report about Emily’s request, Shir Siegel wrote on Instagram: “No matter how hard I have tried, and will continue to try, to describe Emily Damari, I will undoubtedly fail. »
“A friend like this only comes around once in a generation,” she wrote.
Mandy Damari and her daughter Emily, January 21, 2025. (Credit: Mandy Damari/X)
-“Perhaps now that she is here you will understand what I have not been able, and will not be able to explain. » “I will never understand how, of all the people in the world, I had the privilege of being your friend from the moment I was born,” she continued.
Shir Siegel, whose father Keith is being held hostage in Gaza, speaking at Hostages Square in Tel Aviv, December 25, 2024. (Forum of Families of the Hostages and Missing)
Emily and Shir grew up together on Kibbutz Kfar Aza, near the Gaza border. The community was ravaged on October 7, 2023, when thousands of Hamas-led terrorists stormed southern Israel, killing more than 1,200 people and kidnapping 251 hostages.
Of the approximately 1,000 inhabitants of Kfar Aza, 62 were killed and 19 taken hostage. Among the hostages was Aviva Siegel, Keith’s wife and Shir’s mother, who was released as part of the week-long truce in late November 2023.
From left: Lee Siegel, brother of hostage Keith Siegel, Antony Blinken, then-US Secretary of State, captivity survivor Aviva Siegel, and her daughter Shir Siegel, posing for a photo on May 1, 2024. ( Credit: Authorization)
An estimated 91 of the 251 hostages kidnapped by Hamas on October 7, 2023 are still in Gaza, including the bodies of 34 hostages whose deaths were confirmed by the Israeli military.
At the end of November 2023, Hamas released 105 civilians during a week-long truce. Four hostages had previously been released. Eight living hostages were rescued by soldiers and the remains of 40 hostages were recovered, including those of three Israelis who were accidentally killed by the IDF.
The Palestinian terror group also holds two Israeli civilians who entered the Gaza Strip in 2014 and 2015, as well as the body of an IDF soldier killed in 2014. The body of another IDF soldier, also killed in 2014, has recently recovered in Gaza during a secret Israeli military operation.
