Grieving Father in Israel Details Relief at Discovering Daughter Died: Being a Hamas Hostage ‘Worse than Death’

An Irish father, who has been living in Israel, expressed how he was relieved at the news his eight-year-old daughter Emily had died quickly rather than being held hostage indefinitely and tortured by Hamas terrorists.

In an interview with CNN on Wednesday, Thomas Hand recounted, through tears, learning of her death at the hands of Hamas.

“They just said, ‘We found Emily, she’s dead,’ and I went, ‘Yes,’” Hand said.

“I went ‘Yes,’ and smiled because that is the best news of the possibilities that I knew.” he said.

Hand said he believes his daughter’s manner of death was a better alternative than the brutality she would have likely faced if she had lived.

“She was either dead or in Gaza, and if you know anything about what they do to people in Gaza, that is worse than death. That is worse than death,” the grieving father said. “The way they treat you, they have no food, they have no water.”

“She’d be in a dark room with Christ who knows how many people and terrified every minute, hour, day and possible years to come,” he agonized. “So death was a blessing, an absolute blessing.”

Emily had been at a sleepover at a friend’s house on Friday night into Saturday when Hamas terrorists invaded Kibbutz Be’eri and savagely murdered more than 100 people, the New York Post reported.

Hand said he was not initially concerned that morning when the sirens went off, “until I heard the shots, and it was already too late.”

By then, Hand had to run for his life and said he was unable to make contact with his daughter or anyone at the home where she was staying.

“I had to think of Emily,” he said. “She already lost her mother, I couldn’t risk her losing her father too.”

Hand came to Be’eri 30 years ago to volunteer for a few months and ended up moving to the area permanently. Emily’s mother had died of cancer a few years ago.

He described Emily as “the tallest in her class, and a talented dancer and singer,” according to the report.

“If I had known … I could have maybe ran, got her, got her friend, got the mother, brought them back to my place,” he said. “But by the time I realized what was happening, it was already too late.”

Hamas launched the terror attack on Israel early Saturday, Oct. 7, and has thus far killed more than 1,300 and injured more than 3,400 people, according to reports. The attack occurred on the Jewish holiday of Shemini Atzeret, the last festival of the High Holy Day cycle.

More than 100 Israelis were also kidnapped to Gaza — including women, children, and the elderly, many of whom were abused during their abductions. The Palestinian terror attack against Israel has been referred to as the “worst massacre of Jews since the Holocaust.”

In response to the attack, the Israeli Airforce has struck at least 1,000 terror targets in Gaza. Israel has also mobilized 300,000 reservists as its forces continue strikes against Hamas terror targets in Gaza.

Hundreds of foreign nationals in Israel have also been reported murdered, missing, or abducted by Hamas terrorists following the deadly invasion. At least 22 Americans have been killed, and an unspecified number of Americans have been taken hostage or remain unaccounted for.