Thomas Hand, the father of 9-year-old Emily Hand, who was kidnapped from Kibbutz Be'eri on October 7 by Hamas terrorists and was held captive in Gaza for 50 days, decried those who claim that the State of Israel is not acting proportionately in the Gaza Strip.
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"As a father, I have no proportion about our response to what they have done to us. It was atrocious, horrendous, frightening. I never want to see another day like that. They killed my friends, family, completely wiped out. There is no disproportion in our reaction to that and we are doing it, thank God. And I hope we do it to the very end because if we don't all the tragedies, all the murders, the kidnapped, the raped, the tortured, it would be all for nothing. We have to go all the way to the end and finish this job," Hand said on Tuesday in Jerusalem.
Thomas Hand, father of released hostage Emily, Israel can't withdraw before the war is over - 'We must finish the job'
(Ronen Horesh, Tadmit)
"If we back out before the job is done it will all be for nothing. They'll crawl back in the next 10 years and it will all happen again, we have to stop it right now," he added.
Hand referred to his many interviews calling for the return of Emily and the current struggle for the return of the hostages who remain in Gaza.
Emily's story touched everyone, Hand said. "She looks sweet, she is sweet. and she got into people's hearts. And me crying all over the place on television, I never read from a script. Whatever question they ask me it just comes out. I never know what's going to come out. I'm not a politician, I'm not used to speaking at all, it's just natural emotion and I think that's what enters people's minds and hearts," he said from the stage of the the Emergency Conference of the Jewish World of the World Zionist Organization.
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When Thomas Hand was reunited with his daughter, Emily, after she spent 50 days in Hamas captivity
(Photo: IDF Spokesperson's Unit)
Hand said that at first, he did the interview in order to get Emily back. "To highlight the fact that she is an Irish citizen. Dual nationality I know in the past has helped people in captivity. So, I just went along to the media and since I got her back I believe it helped highlight her. I was very worried about it at first. Should I highlight her or let her be one of the anonymous in the background," he said.
But once he saw that it was getting attention, Hand said he had to continue to push forward.
"Since I got her back I could have said 'great, job done.' But we've still got loads of hostages still in there. Youngsters, women, God knows what they are going through. Men soldiers, they are probably going through a terrible time. We've got to get them back. I just want to keep the plight of the Jews, of the hostages, at the top of the list of the people's minds in the media. Because everything becomes old news in the end, unfortunately," he said.
On the attitude of European leaders to the war, Hand said: "The leaders do a lot behind the scenes, but they have to be politicians. It is scary to speak out against the Muslims. The leaders need the votes, they don't want to lose the Muslim camp. The leaders in all of Europe ultimately want to be elected again."