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, was shot and taken from an Israeli kibbutz across the border into Gaza on 7 October.

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”.

Prime Minster Sir Keir Starmer said in a statement the UK “must unequivocally stand with the Jewish community”.

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

Speaking at the Hyde Park memorial event, her mother 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.”

The crowd heard how Emily, who was born to her British mother in Israel and lived there, loved to visit the UK – her “second home across the sea”. She loved watching Spurs play, going to the pub, shopping at Primark and had also watched Ed Sheeran in concert, her mother said.

Her mother 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’s one of their own.”

She said some of the women and children who were released in the hostage deal in November had told her Emily was alive then, and 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 and his body was recovered by Israeli soldiers in Gaza in August.

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

The prime minister agreed that the hostages must be freed and returned immediately, a subsequent press conference was told.

On Sunday, he said the country must “unequivocally” stand with the Jewish community and described 7 October as the “darkest day in Jewish history since the Holocaust”.

“As a father, a husband, a son, a brother – meeting the families of those who lost their loved ones last week was unimaginable. Their grief and pain are ours, and it is shared in homes across the land,” Sir Keir said.

He also reiterated his call for ceasefires in Gaza and Lebanon.

The Hyde Park event, organised by the Board of Deputies of British Jews and other groups, was attended by thousands of British Jews and supporters of Israel who waved British and Israeli flags with chants of “bring them home”.

Among the crowd, many of whom have family and friends in Israel, there was disbelief that the hostages still had not been freed, one year on.

Israeli ambassador to the UK Tzipi Hotovely told the crowd: “We will do whatever we can to bring them home.”

Michael Wegier, chief executive of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, told BBC News: “The British Jewish community is traumatised like much of the Jewish community around the world, especially in Israel.

“There are 30,000 Jews from Britain who live in Israel. Many of us have friends and family there and we go there, and so we take what happens there very deeply and very personally.”

A vigil to remember the victims of the Hamas attack was also held in Glasgow where hundreds gathered at the steps of Kelvingrove Art Gallery.

On the eve of 7 October, a man was filmed damaging a Jewish memorial in Hove.

Sussex Police responded to the video, which had been circulated on X and other social media platforms, and confirmed the incident was being treated as a “hate crime”.

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.