MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Released British-Israeli soldier discusses plight with PM Starmer

Damari told Starmer she had been kept at various UNRWA facilities

Emily Damari, the Israeli soldier who grew up in south-east London and was taken hostage by the terrorist organization Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023, spoke Friday on the telephone with UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer, whom she told about her ordeal. Upon her release, she made headlines worldwide for having lost two fingers and because her sexual orientation (lesbian) had been kept from public knowledge to avoid further damage from her captors.

Damari, 28, whom Starmer invited over to the iconic 10 Downing Street building, was released on Jan. 19 alongside fellow female hostages Romi Gonen, 24, and 31-year-old Doron Steinbrecher in the first batch of the ongoing ceasefire/swap deal.

The Tottenham Hotspurs football fan told Starmer how she spent part of her captivity rotating between various United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) facilities, where she was only given a bottle of iodine for her wounds. When she was taken hostage, she was shot at various times in her hand, hence the missing fingers, and leg, where she still has a bullet. In addition, her pet dog was slaughtered. Emily and her mother Mandy thanked Starmer for the British Government’s role in bringing her home.

She also asked Sir Keir to put maximum pressure on Hamas and UNRWA to allow the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to finally have access to the 82 remaining hostages still held in Gaza as their families are still waiting to hear from their loved ones. “Claims that hostages have been held in UNRWA premises, even if previously vacated, are very serious,” the international agency told British media. “We have repeatedly called for independent investigations into claims of misuse and disregard of UN premises by Palestinian armed groups, including Hamas.”

Meanwhile, fears were growing for the fate of Israeli brothers Kfir and Ariel Bibas, aged two and five, and their Argentine mother Shiri, as dad Yarden was among the hostages to be freed on Saturday. Hamas sources hinted the three of them were killed in an Israeli air strike.