Israeli girl, 9, 'only speaks in whispers' since being released by Hamas

A nine-year-old girl recently released after being held prisoner by Hamas in Gaza will now only talk in whispers, after being ordered to stay silent by her captors. 

"She was a normal, happy, noisy kid, but now she whispers - she was moving her lips with no volume or even air coming out," her father, Thomas Hand, told British newspaper The Sun on Wednesday. 

"She's got used to talking like that for the past 50 days and now I guess she can't stop."

Emily, who is an Irish-Israeli citizen, was at a friend's house in Kibbutz Be'eri when Hamas fighters took her captive on 7 October. Her father had presumed she was killed. 

Hand told The Sun that Emily was not abused while held prisoner, but had lost weight. He added that the first thing she wanted to do after being freed was to watch a video of singer Beyoncé.