An Irish father who lives in Israel said “death is a blessing” when he learned that his eight-year-old daughter was murdered by Hamas terrorists.
Thomas Hand told CNN in an interview Wednesday that his daughter, Emily, was among the more than 1,200 people killed in the deadly terrorists attacks. Hand said his daughter was having a sleepover at her friend’s home when Hamas terrorists entered Kibbutz Be’eri and murdered more than 100 people.
Hand said he heard rocket sirens go off, but by the time he heard the shots “it was already too late,” per the outlet. Hand told CNN he desperately tried to reach his daughter, her friend and her friend’s mother but could not, so he ran for his life.
“I had to think of Emily,” he said, per the outlet. “She already lost her mother, I couldn’t risk her losing her father too.” (RELATED: ‘I Miss Her So Much’: Father Of Israeli Woman Seen Dragged Away On Motorcycle Breaks Down In Interview)
In a heart-wrenching interview on @CNNsitRoom, CNN reporter Clarissa Ward speaks with @WolfBlitzer about a grieving father who finally received confirmation of his daughter’s tragic death during the Hamas attack. Watch: pic.twitter.com/F9Yh3lW5KI
— CNN (@CNN) October 12, 2023
Hand then recounted the moment he found out about his daughter’s fate.
“They just said, ‘We found Emily, she’s dead,’ and I went, ‘yes!'” he told CNN.
“I went ‘Yes!’ and smiled because that is the best news of the possibilities that I knew. The best possibility that I was hoping for,” he said, per the outlet. “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, that is worse than death. The way they treat you, they’d have no food, they’d have no water.”
“She’d be in a dark room with Christ who knows how many people and terrified every minute, hour, day and possible years to come,” Hand told CNN. “So death was a blessing, an absolute blessing.”