“Even at the hardest moment I didn’t look down… They have not broken me.”
NEW YORK — Standing before a packed audience at Temple Emanu-El, former Hamas hostage Emily Damari received a standing ovation before speaking about the 471 harrowing days she spent in captivity. The 28-year-old survivor, freed last January, addressed the synagogue alongside actress and activist Noa Tishbi.
“It was a very important opportunity for me to share my story and the experience I had gone through as a hostage of Hamas in Gaza for 471 days,” Damari told Fox News Digital.
Damari recounted the Oct. 7 attack when Hamas terrorists stormed her home in Kibbutz Kfar Aza. “They were inside the safe room and shot my hand… They’re just looking at her… and immediately they shot her in the head,” she said, describing how her dog was killed and how she was dragged into Gaza.
Throughout captivity, Damari was moved between more than 30 locations, including apartments, schools, tunnels, garages, and a tire storage room. She described constant fear, poor sanitation, and witnessing other hostages’ suffering. “You go to sleep every night … with that fear, that they are going to rape you,” she said.
She also challenged misconceptions about Shifa Hospital in Gaza, calling it a facility where she encountered terrorists, dead bodies, and hostages. “Imagine going to your local hospital and seeing armed terrorists and dead bodies,” she said.
Damari said weekly demonstrations in Israel kept hostages hopeful. She described the moment she confirmed her family survived as a turning point: “That was the moment I finally allowed myself to breathe.”
Now free, Damari is writing a book to share her story and urges the world not to forget the four hostages still in Gaza. “Everyone should have their dignified burial,” she said.