UK Israeli hostage has been ‘forgotten’, says mum

The mother of the only British-Israeli hostage still being held by Hamas in Gaza has asked why the UK is not “fighting every moment to secure her release”.

Emily Damari, 28, has been held since 7 October when she was shot and taken from her Israeli home across the border into Gaza.

Speaking at a London memorial event marking the attacks a year ago, her mother Mandy Damari said her daughter’s “plight seems to have been forgotten”.

The dual-national is among 97 hostages who remain unaccounted for.

At the Hyde Park memorial event attended by thousands of British Jews on Sunday, Mandy said: “[Emily ] is a daughter of both countries, but no one here mentions the fact that there is still a female British hostage being held captive by Hamas for a year now, and I sometimes wonder if people even know there is a British woman there.

“Imagine, for a moment if Emily was your daughter. Try to picture what she is going through.

“Since 7 October last year, she has been held a hostage by Hamas terrorists in the Gaza terror tunnels, 20 metres or more underground, kept in captivity, tortured, isolated, unable to eat, speak or even move without someone else’s permission.”

She told the crowd how when her daughter visited the UK, she loved watching Tottenham play, going to the pub, shopping at Primark and listening to Ed Sheeran.

Mandy pleaded with Britain and other countries to do more to secure the release of her daughter and the other hostages.

“How is it that she is still imprisoned there after one year? Why isn’t the whole world, especially Britain, fighting every moment to secure her release.”

She said some of the women and children who were released in the hostage deal in November told her Emily was alive then and they spoke about how she helped the other hostages try to stay positive, even in the worst of times.

“Every day is living hell not knowing what Emily is going through. I do know from the hostages that returned that they were starved, sexually abused and tortured. Every moment lost is another moment of unimaginable suffering or even death.”

BBC News has approached the UK Foreign Office for comment.

Other hostages with British relatives held include Eli Sharabi, Oded Lifschitz and Avinatan Or. British-Israeli Nadav Popplewell was also kidnapped on 7 October. His body was recovered by Israeli soldiers in Gaza in August.

Families of Israeli hostages met Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer and Foreign Secretary David Lammy on Monday, calling on them to “do more” to bring them home.

Sir Keir agreed that the hostages must be freed and returned immediately, a subsequent press conference was told.

The memorial on Sunday was organised by the Board of Deputies of British Jews, the Jewish Leadership Council and other groups.

On Saturday, tens of thousands of pro-Palestinian protestors marched through central London calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and an end to the escalating conflict in the Middle East.

Israel launched a military campaign in Gaza in response to the unprecedented attack on southern Israel on 7 October by Hamas gunmen, during which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 taken hostage.

At least 41,870 people have been killed in Gaza since then, according to the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry.