A distraught father says he was ‘relieved’ to hear that his missing eight-year-old daughter had been killed by Hamas, because being kidnapped by the group was a fate ‘worse than death’.
Thomas Hand told reporters of his unbearable two-day wait for news about his daughter Emily after militants stormed their kibbutz on Saturday, massacring at least 100 people.
Mr Hand said the kibbutz was beseiged by gunfire for around 12 hours, during which he did not know his child’s fate or whereabouts after she had gone to stay overnight at a friend’s house the day before.
During a heartbreaking interview with CNN, Mr Hand broke down in tears as he recounted the moment he was finally told his daughter’s body was found.
‘They said, we found Emily, she’s dead,’ he told interviewers. ‘And I just went “yes!” I went “yes” and I smiled, because that is the best news of the possibilities that I knew.
‘That was the best news of the possibilities that I knew…
‘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,’ he said.
He said her ‘death was a blessing. An absolute blessing.’
‘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.
‘They’d have no food. They’d have no water. She’d be in a dark room filled with Christ knows how many people. And terrified every minute, hour, day, and possible years to come. So death was a blessing. An absolute blessing.’
Beyond the estimated 1,200 Israelis killed over the weekend, scores of Israelis have also been captured by Hamas, whose conditions and whereabouts remain unknown.
The Be’eri kibbutz was, until Saturday, known as an artistic and farming community of 1,200 people.
The site was not declared safe for outsiders until Tuesday when all the bodies of Israeli victims had been removed. The burnt and mangled corpses of Hamas fighters were, however, still lying in heaps on the outskirts of the kibbutz.
Multiple reporters spoke of the ‘sickening’ smell of death and blood as they were escorted through the site of the massacre.
‘You can see the floors are stained with blood,’ said Fox News correspondent Trey Yingst as he brought viewers inside one of kibbutz’s bullet-riddled houses.
‘It was Saturday morning, around 7am, when militants stormed this village. You can see the weapons they brought with them, extra ammunition, bullet holes in the side of the house and knives on the floor.’
‘It is completely destroyed. It looks like some of the buildings were hit with RPGs, explosives.’
Yingst described the scene as ‘hell on earth’ and said it was the most horrifying site he has been to in his reporting career.
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