About a year and a half after she was freed from Hamas captivity following 471 days in the Gaza Strip, former hostage Emily Damari on Saturday released new images documenting the ordeal she endured after her abduction, including surgery at Gaza City’s Shifa Hospital.
The images, recovered during IDF operations in Gaza, show Damari lying on an operating table alongside members of the hospital’s medical staff.
“Three years ago at this hour, on Simchat Torah, I was deep, deep inside the Gaza Strip,” Damari wrote in an Instagram post, referring to the Jewish holiday during which the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, attack took place.
“I was kidnapped together with the best friend I could have asked for, Gali Berman, who came to be with me during the most terrifying moments of my life,” she wrote. “The moments when I rediscovered the meaning of the phrase ‘fear of death.’ The photos ... Location: Shifa Hospital, in the hands of the terrorists I will never forget.”
Damari was abducted from her home in Kibbutz Kfar Aza, a community near the Gaza border that was among the hardest hit in the Oct. 7 attack. She was shot during her abduction and lost two fingers. She was released in January 2025 after 471 days in captivity.
'I’m inside a disgusting room full of blood'
(Photo: Instagram/@emilydamari)
Describing what happened at Shifa, Damari wrote: “I’m inside a disgusting room full of blood, with a body on the floor next to me. A ‘doctor’ approaches and introduces himself as ‘Dr. Hamas,’ with another 10 monsters beside him, AK-47s pointed at my head, and I’m just praying to God to protect me in this situation.”
“People who understand even a little about medicine can see from the pictures that the fact I’m here at all is a miracle,” she continued. “For four months, my leg continued bleeding inside Gaza with an open gunshot wound. Stitches that are supposed to be removed after 14 days remained in my hand for 365 days. And here I am.”
Damari thanked God, her family, security forces and those who were held alongside her, singling out fellow former hostage Romi Gonen.
Hostage survivor Emily Damari
(Photo: Instagram/@emilydamari)
“Thank you to the people of Israel, who never stopped fighting for us for a moment, so that we could return to you, hug you, tell you our stories and recover with you forever,” she wrote. “I love you, and more than anything, I love life.”
She ended the post by marking Simchat Torah in the Hebrew year 5787.
Damari suffered serious gunshot wounds during her abduction and lost two fingers on her left hand, an injury that later became widely associated with her public appearances after her release. Her beloved dog was also killed during the attack.
Emily Damari and the hand the became a symbol
Her mother, Mandy Damari, has previously said her daughter was “stitched up like a pincushion” by her captors, leaving her with severe pain in her hand and leg.
Despite the severity of the wounds and the danger of infection, her mother said Hamas provided virtually no medical treatment beyond a bottle of expired iodine.
“It is nothing short of a miracle that she did not develop a life-threatening infection,” Mandy Damari said.