‘There’s no way in hell that a 9-year-old child should be hostage’

Members of the Irish Israeli and Jewish communities gathered at St Stephen’s Green on Friday afternoon to mark the ninth birthday of Emily Hand, the Irish-Israeli girl believed to be among the hostages held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

At the gathering, a pink birthday cake, multicoloured balloons, bunting and little packets of sweets decorated a small table close to Fusilier’s Arch, at the top of Grafton Street. In a notebook filled with photographs of Emily, people wrote messages in English and Hebrew. One read: “Happy birthday, come back safely.”

Anna Byrne, a cousin of Tom Hand’s, Emily’s Dublin-born father, represented the Hand family at the gathering. She said her family were hopeful of Emily’s safe return.

“We thought she would be home to celebrate her birthday. Unfortunately not, but hopefully soon,” she said.

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Ms Byrne said her family were focused on providing “love and support and positivity” to Mr Hand.

“He’s absolutely amazing. We worry about him, because we look at him and he looks exhausted. But we know that he wouldn’t have been any other way, and he’s going to keep going and he’s not going to stop until Emily comes home.”

She said Mr Hand was grateful for the outpouring of Irish and international support for his family.

It was initially believed that Emily had been killed in the October 7th attacks, when Hamas militants targeted the Be’eri Kibbutz in southern Israel. It emerged earlier this month that Emily had been misidentified – Israeli authorities now believe it is likely the nine-year-old child was taken to Gaza by Hamas.

The news brought joy, Ms Byrne said. “Now there’s hope again. So we all just – we clung on to that hope, and we went, ‘Okay, there’s a life, there’s hope’.”

Not knowing Emily’s condition was difficult, but the family remained positive, especially Mr Hand, she said.

Mr Hand was in Ireland earlier this week to drum up “support and sympathy” from the Government. Mr Hand, along with Emily’s half-sister Natali, met Taoiseach Leo Varadkar and Tánaiste Micheál Martin.

Shely Benn Joseph (33), an Israeli woman living in Dublin, said it was “unbearable” to think of Emily “without her family, without her father, in Hamas tunnels”.

“There’s no way in hell that a nine-year-old child should be hostage in Hamas tunnels. No way in hell. Nothing to do with politics. Nothing. I want people to see that this girl is just like their girl,” she said.

“All hostages have to be released now. This is our message.”

Eva Kelly, from Rathgar in Dublin, said she came to the gathering to “show support” for Emily. “We don’t know if she’s alive or dead. She’s been taken from her family for absolutely no reason other than she was in Israel,” she said.

“She’s a little child, it’s her birthday, and [she] is in a tunnel, somewhere, possibly, surrounded by people who hate her, and that’s not right.

“It would be more heartening if there were more Irish people, but I didn’t expect it either,” she said.