Ex-Hamas hostage Emily Damari recounts 471 days of survival in Gaza: ‘Everyone needs to know what happened’

Standing successful beforehand of an assemblage astatine Temple Emanu-El successful New York City, erstwhile Hamas hostage Emily Damari received a lasting ovation earlier she adjacent began speaking. The 28-year-old survivor, freed aft 471 days successful captivity, addressed a packed synagogue alongside histrion and activistic Noa Tishbi, sharing the acquisition that has shaped each infinitesimal of her beingness since Oct. 7.

"It was a precise important accidental for maine to stock my communicative and the acquisition I had gone done arsenic a hostage of Hamas successful Gaza for 471 days," Damari told Fox News Digital.

‘They changeable my hand. They changeable my dog.’

FREED HOSTAGE LAMENTS ISRAELI FANS BEING BARRED FROM UK SOCCER GAME OVER CONCERNS OF PRO-PALESTINIAN PROTESTS

Emily Damari, precocious freed from Hamas captivity, speaks astatine Temple Emanu-El successful New York connected Nov. 5, 2025. "Even astatine the hardest moment, I didn’t look down … They person not breached me."

Damari, whose infinitesimal of merchandise went viral aft she pushed the violent holding her portion being transferred to the Red Cross, recounted the infinitesimal Hamas terrorists broke into her harmless country connected Oct. 7. Her communicative is astir unbearable to hear, yet she smiled done overmuch of it. That refusal to collapse, she said, was deliberate.

"Even astatine the hardest infinitesimal I didn’t look down. I ever looked up. I didn’t fto the terrorists person the restitution of seeing maine break. They person not breached me."

On Oct. 7, Hamas terrorists stormed into her location successful Kibbutz Kfar Aza. "They were wrong the harmless country and changeable my hand. The archetypal happening that they did, they changeable my hand." Moments later, they killed her dog. "They’re conscionable looking astatine her… and instantly they changeable her successful the head."

Dragged toward Gaza, she begged them to extremity her beingness connected the spot. "I recognize he’s not going to instrumentality maine to a infirmary successful Ashkelon oregon Tel Aviv… truthful I’m like, no, no. Please sprout me. I don’t privation to beryllium a hostage."

Instead, she was taken crossed the border.

Emily Damari, right, and her parent Mandy are seen adjacent kibbutz Reim, confederate Israel aft Emily was released from captivity by Hamas terrorists successful Gaza, connected Sunday, Jan. 19, 2025. (AP/Israeli Army)

She said astatine Shifa Hospital successful Gaza that she "saw galore terrorists, dormant bodies, hostages and weapons."

One of the astir important messages she wants Americans to understand, she said, is what she witnessed wrong Shifa Hospital, wide described overseas arsenic a civilian aesculapian installation is false.

"That hospital… you ever spot connected Al Jazeera, saying there’s a civilian infirmary and everything," she added. "So conscionable truthful you know… it’s not a civilian hospital."

"Shifa Hospital is wherever I was treated by ‘Dr. Hamas’ — that is however the doc introduced himself to maine — and wherever I saw galore terrorists, dormant bodies, hostages and weapons. Imagine going to your section infirmary and seeing equipped terrorists and dormant bodies."

A idiosyncratic walks past pictures of hostages kidnapped during the deadly October 7 onslaught by the Palestinian Islamist radical Hamas from Gaza, projected connected a screen, successful Tel Aviv, Israel, May 31, 2024. (Marko Djurica/ Reuters/File Photo)

For implicit 15 months, she was held successful much than 30 antithetic locations — apartments, schools, tunnels, garages and adjacent a tyre retention country — often with days betwixt showers and hardly immoderate water. She slept successful cramped, filthy spaces, sometimes "without immoderate toilet."

The astir searing memory, she said, came erstwhile she was taken heavy underground. She was led into a tiny cage and saw a radical of kidnapped girls. "The archetypal happening you spot is simply a 9-year-old miss … without her parents," she said. "It was 1 of the astir achy things that I saw successful captivity."

"You spell to slumber each nighttime … with that fear, that they are going to rape you," she said. "There is simply a happening astir being a pistillate successful captivity."

Another infinitesimal she shared captured her beardown personality. Emily said Hamas repeatedly referred to her arsenic a "prisoner," and she refused to judge it. "I said, okay, if you telephone maine a prisoner, wherefore bash I not get 3 meals a day? Why don’t I get to talk with my mother? Why don’t I ever get to spot the sun?" She told them openly that if she was genuinely a prisoner, she deserved basal rights. But the terrorists dismissed her.

People locomotion towards Israeli subject helicopters arsenic Romi Gonen, Doron Steinbrecher and Emily Damari, 3 pistillate hostages who person been held successful Gaza since the deadly October 7 2023 attack, instrumentality to Israel arsenic portion of a ceasefire woody successful Gaza betwixt Hamas and Israel, by Israel’s borderline with Gaza successful confederate Israel, January 19, 2025. (REUTERS/Amir Cohen)

Damari said Hamas guards routinely played Al Jazeera broadcasts utilizing battery-powered televisions. What she saw stunned her, particularly American field protests.

"I couldn’t judge watching the protests successful the USA, particularly astatine Columbia University," she told Fox News Digital. "Students protesting and radical demonstrating for thing they knew thing about."

As a cheery pistillate who had to fell her individuality to enactment alive, she instantly noticed LGBTQ activists successful the footage. She said she confronted her captors directly.

"I adjacent commented to my captor that if those Queers for Palestine protesters ever got into Gaza, they would ne'er travel out," she told Fox News Digital. "The violent captor who was holding maine conscionable smirked and agreed."

Extremists protestation against Israel astatine Columbia University successful New York City.

"I consciousness atrocious for each those radical for being truthful poorly informed and not taking the clip to recognize the truth," she said.

Damari said she and different hostages survived emotionally by clinging to immoderate motion the satellite was warring for them. Weekly demonstrations successful Israel were everything.

"We waited each week for that Shabbat … it was 1 of the biggest lights for us," she said. "We watched the protest, and we knew they didn’t hide astir america … they did immoderate they could for america to beryllium released."

HAMAS CAPTORS ONCE HELD ORDINARY JOBS — ‘TEACHERS AND DOCTORS,’ SAYS EX-ISRAELI HOSTAGE

Freed hostage Emily Damari astatine Temple Emanu-El successful New York, November 5. During her captivity, she didn’t cognize whether her parent Mandy and brothers Tom and Ben had survived the Hamas attack.

In New York, accompanied by her mother, Mandy, and her brothers, Tom and Ben, she described the agony of not knowing whether her household had survived the massacre successful Kfar Aza. Terrorists had reached "very adjacent to my mother’s house" and her brother’s home.

She begged God for a motion her parent was alive. It came lone erstwhile guards concisely switched connected a tiny TV. "The archetypal happening we saw was idiosyncratic showing my poster successful the Knesset … and I’m like, ohio my God, it’s my mom. My ma is alive."

But she inactive didn’t cognize astir her brother. She learned the information lone aft she crossed backmost into Israel. "They took maine to the IDF, and they said, each your household is good … my member is fine," she recalled successful tears. "That was the infinitesimal I yet allowed myself to breathe."

Freedom brought its ain weight. Her champion friends from Kfar Aza, Gali and Ziv Berman, remained successful Gaza until the last hostage deal, brokered by the Trump administration. Emily said their merchandise connected Oct. 13 was the infinitesimal she genuinely felt free.

"I didn’t consciousness comfy seeing the sunset. I didn’t bask anything… portion they were inactive there."

"Now I’m feeling amazing," she said. "That was the existent happiness that I was searching for."

Asked what comes next, she did not hesitate to say.

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Hamas hostage posters of Gali and Ziv Berman, adjacent friends of Emily Damari who were yet released from captivity past month. "I didn’t consciousness comfy to spot the sunset. I didn’t bask anything… portion they were inactive there," Damari said. (The Hostages and Missing Families Forum)

"I deliberation there’s a crushed that God chose maine to person this horrible acquisition … I person the accidental to talk with the satellite … and to stock my story," she said, sharing that she has started penning a book. "Everyone should cognize everything astir what we’ve been through."

She ended with a plea not to hide the 4 hostages inactive held successful Gaza, 1 of whom is reportedly expected to beryllium returned aboriginal today. "Everyone should person their dignified burial," she said.