Freed hostage who lost two fingers describes being ‘happiest person in world’

She and Romi Gonen, who was freed with her, were together the whole time in captivity in Gaza.

By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News

Emily Damari, one of the three women released on the first day of the Israel-Hamas ceasefire Sunday, came out of captivity with two fingers missing on her hand.

During the Hamas takeover of her kibbutz, Kfar Aza, the dual British-Israeli citizen had attempted to hide under her bed, but the terrorists caught her and at some point in the assault they blew off the two middle fingers of her left hand.

The 27-year-old had also had shrapnel in her leg, her mother, Mandy, born in Beckenham, a town south of London, told British Jewish paper The JC Monday.

“I know at the beginning she was treated for her gunshot wound, but very shortly afterwards they just threw bandages at her and told her to treat herself,” she said, and her daughter was not given “any other medication” by the terrorists who held her.

In pictures of the reunion of Damari and her family after she arrived back in Israel, her hand could be seen heavily and professionally bandaged after being taken care of by IDF physicians.

Damari already posted a story to Instagram Monday morning, to thank everyone and reveal a bit of her feelings about being free.

“I love, love, love,” she wrote, thanking God, her family, and “the best friends one could possibly have in this world. I have returned to my beloved life.”

“I’ve managed to see just a tiny part of everything and my heart is bursting from all of the emotion. Thank you, thank you, thank you. I am the happiest person in the world just to be,” she concluded.

She then added the emoji of a hand with the thumb, forefinger and pinkie up, which is a shortcut signal in sign language for “I love you,” and now also symbolizes her own hand.

Damari was not only “the glue” that held all her friends together, as one of her best friends described her, and was an optimistic person, according to her mother, who was told by hostages freed six weeks into the war that Emily tried to help them in their dire circumstances.

She was also mentally and physically tough, having done her service in the IDF in the Border Police, and continuing to do reserve duty after her mandatory stint was completed.

When her mother traveled the globe in her unending efforts to raise awareness about the hostages and beg for world leaders’ help in releasing them, this aspect of her daughter’s history was deliberately left out in an effort to minimize the harm it could cause her in Hamas’ hands.

Damari was not alone in Gaza, as Romi Gonen (24), who had been abducted from the Nova dance festival, was with her during their entire 15-month-long ordeal.

It is not yet known if the third hostage released Sunday, Doron Steinbrecher (31), a dual Romanian-Israeli citizen who was also from Kibbutz Kfar Aza, was held with other hostages during any period of her captivity.