A MAN WHO is reportedly from Ireland has told of his grief after finding out that his daughter was dead following Hamas attacks on the Beeri Kibbutz, where a small Israeli farming community lives. 

Speaking to a CNN reporter, Thomas Hand said that his 8-year-old daughter Emily had gone for a sleepover at a friend’s house in the Kibbutz. 

He had not heard news of her whereabouts for two days prior to being informed by authorities that she had died. 

Thomas Hand said: “They just said, we found Emily, she’s dead, and I went ‘Yes!’ and smiled, because that is the best news, of the possibilities I knew, that was the best possibility I was hoping for,.

“She was either dead or in Gaza, and if you know anything about what they do to people in Gaza, that is worse than death…the way they treat you, they have no food, they have no water, she’d be in a dark room filled with christ knows how many people and for how many years to come,” he said. 

In a heart-wrenching interview on @CNNsitRoom, CNN reporter Clarissa Ward speaks with @WolfBlitzer about a grieving father who finally received confirmation of his daughter's tragic death during the Hamas attack. Watch: pic.twitter.com/F9Yh3lW5KI

— CNN (@CNN) October 12, 2023

The visibly shocked and upset father added: “So death was a blessing, an absolute blessing”. 

 The Beeri Kibbutz is less than five km from the border between Israel and Gaza. It is a gated community, which was overrun on Saturday by Hamas militants who killed more than 100 residents, the Israeli military has said. 

“The devastation here is absolutely massive,” said Doron Spielman, an Israeli army spokesman said. 

“It’s very difficult for us, we still don’t know who’s a hostage and who was killed,” Spielman added. 

- Additional reporting from AFP.