Kidnapping of Emily Damari

Emily Damari, born in 1997 and raised in the Kfar Aza kibbutz in Israel, is a British-Israeli former hostage who was abducted by Hamas during the attacks on southern Israel on 7 October 2023. Damari holds dual British citizenship through her mother, Mandy Damari, who was born in London and later moved to Israel. Emily Damari had served as a staff sergeant with the Israeli Border Police in Hebron prior to her abduction.

According to IDF records, Kfar Aza was attacked at approximately 6:42am on 7 October 2023, with militants entering by paraglider and rocket fire before breaching the kibbutz fence line. Damari was taken from the safe room of her house together with her friends, twin brothers Ziv and Gali Berman. During the attack she was shot in the hand, injured by shrapnel in her leg, lost two fingers, and her dog was killed by the attackers before she was dragged from her home.

Damari was taken, blindfolded, in her own car to Shifa Hospital, where a man identifying himself as "Dr. Hamas" operated on her; she later discovered she had lost two fingers and that her leg wound had not been properly stitched. She was held for 40 days with Ziv Berman, and later with fellow hostages Doron Steinbrecher and Romi Gonen, at times in shelters designated for displaced Gazans and at times underground without daylight. Gonen, a veterinary nurse, provided medical care for Damari's wounds. Damari described concealing her sexual orientation from her captors and said she performed intensive exercise, including up to 600 sit-ups a day, to relieve stress, which led captors to nickname her "John Cena." She turned 28 while in captivity and was informed of her release only the day before it occurred.

On 19 January 2025, Damari, Gonen, and Steinbrecher were released as part of a truce between Israel and Hamas, in an exchange involving hostages, civilians, and IDF soldiers for 90 Palestinian prisoners. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Foreign Secretary David Lammy publicly commented on her release. Israeli medical officials assessed all three released hostages as being in stable and good overall condition.

Following her release, Damari required additional surgery on her hand, participated in public rallies and commemorative events, and visited Kfar Aza and the United Kingdom. In 2025, Israeli forces announced the killing of two men identified as having held Damari captive during parts of her captivity. In October 2025, following the announcement of the Gaza Peace Plan, Damari was reunited publicly with Ziv and Gali Berman, who had remained in captivity after her own release. In January 2026, Damari announced her engagement to her partner, Danielle Amit.