The best friend of newly freed British hostage Emily Damari has revealed his joy that they will soon be reunited following ’15 months of hell’.
Ms Damari, 28, was kidnapped during the October 7 attacks and has been a hostage for 470 days.
She was devastatingly shot in the hand and suffered shrapnel wounds to the leg when snatched from the Kfar Aza kibbutz village in October 7, 2023.
This afternoon, she was one of three women to be freed as part of a ceasefire deal with Israel, with an international Red Cross convoy collecting the trio from Hamas.
The truce had been delayed this morning when the terrorist group failed to hand over the list of names 24 hours ahead of time as stated as part of the agreement.
Ms Damari’s best friend Guy Yakobi, 29, told of his relief and excitement following an agonising wait to see if she would really be let go.
‘We are really excited. All the rumours from Telegram said she was not on the list today,’ he said.
‘We have been through hell these last hours and days. We have had no sleep. I was really nervous. I have been awake all last night because of the delay from Hamas in giving the names.’
He added: ‘This morning I was walking my dog in the park and I saw the names and was just screaming my throat out.
‘I was crying and shouting: “Yes! Thanks God!” Everyone was staring at me and I was just shouting at them: “My best friend is coming back from Gaza!”‘
After hearing the news, Mr Yakobi said he has still had to process what is happening following ’15 months of hell’.
‘Then we started to organise everything, all of our friends together are watching the news together,’ he said.
‘We still need to process that she is coming back home, after these 15 months of hell.
‘We will cry together here. We have invited all Emily’s best friends in the kibbutz, we are going to watch the news together.’
Revealing how he met Ms Damari, he said: ‘I moved to Kfar Aza in the 6th grade. My parents were the nearest house to her, that’s how our friendship began.
‘Emily is the best friend ever. If you want a friend who will do everything for you, if you need a friend who will be there just for you – this is Emily.
‘Emily will go out of her way just to make her friends happy and she is really the best human I know.
‘She does everything to make all the people around her feel comfortable even if she knew them just for a few days.
‘In Kfar Aza there’s a custom that if you bring a new girlfriend or boyfriend you bring them first to Emily’s house because she’s the best to break the ice.’
Ms Damari, a Spurs fan, was born in Kfar Aza and lived on the kibbutz her whole life, but visits England regularly.
Her mother, Mandy, grew up in Beckenham before moving to Israel in her 20s where she met Ms Damari’s father and they had three children together in Kfar Aza.
‘I have thought about this moment too many times,’ he said. ‘I will just hug cry I think. I hope that I have tears left from the last year, but it’s all going to come out when I see her.
‘We are going to wait and be patient. We are going to wait until we see her across and then we celebrate.
‘We are not going to leave her side. We are going to be her shadow. Wherever she goes we will follow.’
The friend said he is watching from Kibbutz Gat. ‘For the kibbutz it’s amazing. They have been around the world together. They are really fabulous women and really strong this last year,’ he said.
‘It is a blessing that their daughters are coming out together. It is agonising when one comes out but another does not, so this is really special for them.
‘I have been amazed to see how powerful and what good friends they are. It’s really incredible to see them together, being there for each other this last year. It would have been so painful if they came back separately. When you see those names together it’s such a big relief.
‘But there are still the more from our kibbutz who must come home. We are waiting for them, it is not over.’
