Former Gaza hostage Emily Damari hosted Mosab Hassan Yousef, known as the “Green Prince,” at her home in Kfar Aza, where she revealed new details about her time in Hamas captivity, N12 reported on Sunday.
Damari stated she had wanted to meet Yousef since she was taken by Hamas, adding that she had wanted to read his book, ‘Son of Hamas,’ before the war and never had the time.
“Maybe it would have made me sharper going into that situation,” she said.
Damari said she did not want to repress any memories of her time in captivity.
“On the contrary, I want to learn more. Not to repress it. Reading what this crazy man did is a privilege for us.”
Upon her return from captivity, Damari told her brother she needed to read the book, to understand how her captors thought and operated.
“When you’ve been there, seen and experienced those people, those monsters, and then you read this and learn from it, you say: wow, that’s how they think, that’s how they see things. It all connects. It feels true. What’s written there takes me right back,” she said.
“Their ideology, their faith - he really explains what they believe in and how they operate.”
During their meeting, Damari told Yousef about the murder of her dog and her kidnapping on October 7, 2023.
“They shot my dog, the bullet went into my leg, and then they just took us outside,” she explained.
“I saw maybe 50 or 60 terrorists in the neighborhood and asked myself what was going on. Then they just put us in a car and drove us into Gaza, in my own car, with Gali and Ziv [Berman].”
While the two spoke, they heard artillery fire from Gaza in the background. “How do you feel when you hear that?” Yousef asked.
“It’s fine, I grew up with it, I’m used to it,” Damari said. “Inside Gaza, when the bombs were really close, that was scary. But now it’s fine. I’m here. We have a safe room.”
Senior Hamas leader spoke to Damari several times, she claims
Damari shared how she was in a tunnel where senior Hamas terror leader Izz al-Din al-Haddad was based. "He was the boss," she told Yousef. In response, he asked her if he surrounded himself with hostages, and she confirmed.
During her time in captivity, Haddad told Damari about Hamas's objectives during the October 7 massacre, claiming that their goal was to bring back as many hostages as possible, but that they did not believe they would infiltrate so far into Israeli territory.
Yousef asserted that Haddad is the only person who has the power and influence to reach a ceasefire agreement, commenting that US President Donald Trump, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Qatar, and Hamas leaders in Doha do not have this ability.
Damari also claimed that Haddad said he is "fine with the idea" that Hamas leaders would be exiled and some other organization would rule the Gaza Strip. Yousef stated that this was the first time he had heard that Haddad would be willing to exchange power for safe passage.