Tom Hand faces agonising wait for daughter's release from Gaza

Thomas Hand has been told that his daughter Emily was taken by Hamas. She was originally feared dead after the Hamas assault on Kibbutz Be’eri in Israel on October 7. Picture: CNN

On Sunday evening, it emerged that the 8-year-old daughter of Irish citizen Tom Hand was believed to be alive and held hostage in Gaza. 

The detail came almost a month after Dublin-born Tom was told she had been killed during Hamas’s bloody attack on Kibbutz Be’eri where the father and daughter lived.

An official at the embassy in Tel Aviv told RTÉ on Sunday that DNA tests indicated that Emily was not among those whose charred remains were found at Kibbutz Be’eri and the Israeli authorities now believe that she is being held hostage by Hamas in Gaza. 

The process of collecting and identifying the bodies of some 1,400 victims of the Hamas massacre on October 7 has been long and complicated. 

There was at least one other case where a foreign embassy was informed that one of their citizens had been killed when it later transpired that they were alive. 

Meanwhile, several bodies of victims from October 7 remain unidentified.

A week after the war began, an official said that the most difficult bodies to identify were those of children, as they lacked the biometric data that most Israeli adults provide during military service. The fact some victims had been burned further complicated the process.

Why did the Irish Government ask Iran for help?

News that an Irish citizen may be held in Gaza, along with some 240 other hostages, first broke last Thursday, after the Iranian state news service broadcasted a summary of a recent conversation between Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs Micheál Martin and Iranian foreign minister Hossein Amirabdollahian.

An Iranian official said during the broadcast: "Micheál Martin also demanded Iran help in the release of an Irish national who is among dozens of captives held by Palestinian resistance movement Hamas in Gaza.

"Amirabdollahian, who has been pushing for diplomatic efforts aimed at supporting the Palestinians in Gaza, said that Hamas has agreed to release civilian captives, which will be carried out when conditions are ripe."

Both the EU and the US have designated the military and political wings of Hamas as terrorist organisations which they do not have direct relations with. 

This means that the US government and EU governments cannot reach out directly to Hamas to negotiate over the hostage releases. 

Instead, countries like Ireland are required to go through third-party countries with strong relations with Hamas, such as Iran and Qatar.

Iran and its state-sponsored militia Hezbollah are allies of Hamas while for over a decade Qatar has hosted the political office of Hamas in its capital Doha. 

The office was established at the behest of the US who wanted to establish an indirect line of communication with Hamas — as they were prevented from having direct contact under US terrorist legislation.

Qatar has since been used frequently as an interlocutor by the US to mediate conflicts between Israel and Hamas. 

The oil-rich kingdom is now playing a leading role in brokering the delicate hostage negotiations. 

After it emerged that a hostage may be in Gaza, a Qatari source confirmed there was an Irish citizen in Gaza but didn’t provide any further details.

What is the latest on the hostage negotiations?

So far, Hamas has released four hostages including an Israeli-American mother and daughter, as well as two elderly Israeli women. 

Last week, Israeli forces on the ground in Gaza also rescued one soldier who was held captive.

The Islamist terror group has offered to return all of the hostages it holds — which does not include all the hostages held by other Palestinian factions in Gaza — in return for Israel releasing the thousands of prisoners currently held in Israeli prisons, many without trial. 

It remains unclear whether Emily is believed to be held by Hamas, Islamic Jihad, or one of the other small Palestinian factions that are thought to be holding hostages in locations around Gaza.

Hamas has also maintained that there must be a ceasefire in order for the hostage releases to take place. 

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whose popularity has plunged since October 7, has not given any sign that he is willing to prioritise the release of the hostages over the military aim of destroying Hamas in Gaza. 

Yesterday, he said: “There will be no ceasefire without the return of the hostages. We say this to our friends and to our enemies. We will continue until we defeat them.” 

Some relatives of the hostages have said they favour a deal that would involve the release of all Palestinian prisoners held in Israel while others have simply said the Israeli government needs to offer significant concessions. 

On Saturday, I attended a protest outside Netanyahu’s residence in Jerusalem where 2,000 Israelis gathered and accused the Israeli premier of mishandling the war and the hostage negotiations. 

Some demanded his resignation, while others demanded they be jailed.

As the unrelenting bombardment of Gaza enters its fourth week, Hamas has made unverified claims that hostages have been killed from the Israeli strikes, which have killed over 10,000 people according to the latest figures from the Gaza authorities.

The news that Tom Hand received last week will give him hope of seeing 8-year-old Emily safely home but like the many other relatives of hostages in Gaza, he is now part of a club no one ever wanted to be a member of. 

Along with those families, he is now facing an agonising wait, with no clear end yet in sight.