JOY FOR EMILY

Girl greeted by dad and pooch in hostage swap

-  LUCY THORNTON & PAUL MARTIN

A BRAVE girl held hostage by Hamas was being comforted by her dad and her dog at her hospital bedside in Israel yesterday.

Emily Hand's father Tom, who was born in Ireland and grew up in England, took her beloved pooch Johnsie as she was released at the Gaza-Israel border.

He was staying close to her in the hospital in Tel Aviv, having been given a bed next to her and her pet.

Emily, aged nine, is one of 20 hostages aged 18 years old and younger, who have now been released in three days of the Israeli and Hamas ceasefire.

She was snatched during a sleepover with her friend, both in their pyjamas.

Tom Hand, 63, was initially told his daughter, who turned nine in captivity, was killed in the October 7 Hamas attacks in which 1200 people were slaughtered. But he was later informed she was alive but had been kidnapped.

Tom, from Dun Laoghaire, Dublin, said: "I think we should spend years in a peaceful country far away from this conflict, like England.

"I think the damage will be greater on the inside than the outside.

He said Emily's mum died of cancer when she was two, and that he was determined to take Johnsie to see her as she was set free.