'There was literally nothing to come back to': Oct. 7 survivor Thomas Hand shares his story with Canadians

The CJN Daily with Ellin Bessner

Kibbutz Be’eri survivor Thomas Hand spent nearly a month last year believing his youngest daughter Emily, then 8, had been killed by Hamas terrorists who stormed their Israeli farming community on Oct. 7 and slaughtered over 100 residents. Hand would later learn that Emily had actually been one of the 30 Kibbutz Be’eri residents kidnapped into Gaza that day. The girl was held for 50 days-not in a tunnel, as it turns out, but in private apartments together four other Kibbutz members and also with Noa Argamani, the Nova music festival hostage, until the cease-fire/ prisoner exchange in November 2023 saw Emily among those released. Hand, 64, and his daughter, now 9, are trying to rebuild their lives. They and others from Be’eri have moved into a new temporary home at Kibbutz Hazterim, near Beersheba, away from their own bullet-riddled house, while the kibbutz rebuilds. Ahead of the one-year anniversary of the Oct. 7 attack, Hand and his daughter flew to Canada, to Vancouver, to share their story, and also some memories of Canadian victim Vivian Silver, a neighbour on the kibbutz. On this episode of The CJN Daily, Thomas Hand joins host Ellin Bessner, with some tough words for the Canadian government, which he accused of “giving Hamas a reward for the violence caused to Israeli citizens.”

What we talked about:

• Read more about the memorial projects being assembled for the victims of Oct. 7, including Vivian Silver, of Kibbutz Be’eri, in The CJN.
• Learn more about Kibbutz Be’eri’s fundraising campaign to return home in 2026.
• Here’s a list of memorial events being held for Oct. 7 across Canada, in The CJN.
• Example

Credits

• Host and writer: Ellin Bessner (@ebessner)
• Production team: Zachary Kauffman (producer), Michael Fraiman (executive producer)
• Music: Dov Beck-Levine

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