Hamas Separates Mother from Daughter in Hostage Release; Emily Hand, 9, is Free

Hamas separated a mother and her daughter in the second release of hostages on Saturday, violating what Israel says was an agreement not to split families, and showing a degree of cruelty that undermines its effort at a more humanitarian façade.

Hamas released 13 Israeli hostages — eight children and five women — and four Thai nationals, in return for an Israeli release of 39 convicted female and juvenile Palestinian terrorists, plus additional fuel and supplies for the Gaza Strip.

Among the hostages released was Hila Rotem, 12, whose mother, Raya Rotem, 54, was not released. The Times of Israel reports that Israel believes that to be a violation of the agreement with Hamas, which is to see at least 50 hostages released over a four-day pause in fighting.

Another hostage was dual Irish-Israeli citizen Emily Hand, who turned nine years old in captivity. Her father had initially been told that she had died in the October 7 attack; he said it was better that she had died than have to endure torture by Hamas.

When it was reported that she was still alive, he prayed for her release — and it finally came on Saturday night. A photo of the reunion of father and daughter showed her looking extremely pale but relieved, holding a teddy bear that had been given to her.

One of the hostages, Maya Regev, had to be taken to Soroka Hospital in Be’er Sheva (Beersheba) for urgent medical treatment.

Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the new biography, Rhoda: ‘Comrade Kadalie, You Are Out of Order’. He is also the author of the recent e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.