After an agonising 469 days, Mandy Damari heard the news she’s been praying and campaigning ceaselessly for. Her daughter Emily is on the list of hostages to be released in the first tranche of the hard won hostage deal.
The now 28-year old is the only British-Israeli held by Hamas in Gaza. She was shot and kidnapped from her home in Kibbutz Kfar Aza on the morning of 7th October 2023. Her last message was around 10 am, when she wrote that terrorists were in her neighborhood and shooting around her apartment.
Her inclusion on the list is being met with caution; the names provided do not indicate their order of release, nor does it indicate which of the 33 hostages are alive or the condition they are in after more than 15 horrific months in captivity.
Born and raised in Surrey, Mandy Damari has travelled the world campaigning for her daughter’s release, visiting London for meetings in Downing Street and speaking at the Hyde Park first anniversary vigil for 7 October.
In December, she expressed disappointment with UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy after he failed to call publicly for aid to the Israeli captives hours after she appealed directly to him.
Spurs and Arsenal fans supporting Emily Damari.
Hundreds of volunteers have supported Mandy’s efforts to bring awareness to Emily’s plight, taking to the streets to pin thousands of posters.
Campaigners have also joined Tottenham Hotspur football supporters in solidarity with Emily, a life-long Spurs fan.
Outside the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, campaigners have been releasing yellow balloons, displaying Emily’s photograph, and uniting their voices in song: “She’s one of our own, she’s one of our own, Emily Damari, bring Emily home!”
Just hours after the ceasefire announcement, Arsenal and Spurs fans united in a call for her release.
Emily Damari
Speaking to Jewish News last year, Damari said her family were “in awe of the amount of love and support shown by the community in the UK since we publicised the fact that Emily is a British Israeli hostage. It means a great deal to my family to see the huge amount of activity that has been happening recently in order to advocate for Emily’s immediate release.”
In an interview with the Daily Mail today, she said: “‘What she’s feeling there – who knows. It must be ten times worse for her than it is for me.’
She credits with incoming President Donald Trump for the deal being signed after many other international efforts at diplomacy have failed.
Silent vigil for British hostage Emily Damari, held in Leeds. November 2024
Mandy added: “President-elect Donald Trump, you have really made my dreams come true – a deal has been signed. But it’s not over. My nightmare is still going on until I see Emily and all the other 98 hostages back in Israel with their families.”
Each day, once the hostages have been received by IDF troops and the families are updated, the Prime Minister’s Office will issue a statement with the names of the captives that have been released.
