In Tel Aviv on a Thursday evening, Emily Damari — a British-Israeli woman who spent 471 days in Hamas captivity after the October 7, 2023 attacks — married Danielle Amit beneath a traditional Jewish wedding canopy. The ceremony, attended by fellow former hostages who shared her ordeal, was less a private occasion than a collective act of return: proof that life, interrupted so violently, can resume its quieter rhythms. Against the vast and still-unresolved suffering of the wider conflict, the wedding stood as one of the oldest human gestures — the choice to build a future, even when the past h
Former Hamas hostage Emily Damari marries in Tel Aviv ceremony
Emily Damari was held in captivity for 471 days, shot in the leg and hand during the October 7 attack, and lost two fingers.
I want to look forward to all the days ahead
Mark
What strikes me most is that her mother refused to spend the wedding looking backward. How did that land in the room?
Mimi
It was a deliberate choice, I think. After 471 days of waiting, of not knowing, you could understand if she'd wanted to name that suffering openly. Instead she said: I'm not doing that tonight. We're looking forward.
Luke
We don't have reporting on how that was received, though. We know what she said, but not how people responded to it, or what the emotional temperature actually was.
Mark
Fair. But the fact that so many other hostages were there—does that change what the wedding meant?
Mimi
It has to. You're not just celebrating a couple. You're watching people who were separated, who went through something most of us can't fathom, come back together in a room and say: life continues. We're still here.
Luke
Though we should be careful not to overload the wedding with symbolic weight it might not carry. For Damari and Amit, it was probably just their wedding. The larger meaning is real, but it's also something we're reading into it.
Mark
Is there anything about how they met after her release that matters?
Mimi
Only that it happened at all. She was taken at 30, held for over a year, came back changed. And she found someone. Built something. That's the story underneath the story.
Luke
We don't know the details of how they met, though. That's worth noting—it's a gap in what we know.
Mark
So the wedding is the public fact, but the relationship itself is still private.
Mimi
Exactly. We see the ceremony. The rest is theirs.
Der Puls
- A woman who was shot, taken, and held for over 471 days now stood under a wedding canopy — the distance between those two realities is almost impossible to hold at once.
- The guest list itself told a story of collective trauma: former hostages Romi Gonen, the Berman twins, Keith and Aviva Siegal, and others gathered not just to celebrate, but to witness each other's survival made visible.
- Damari's mother admitted that during the darkest stretches of captivity, imagining this night felt beyond the reach of hope — her words at the ceremony carried the full weight of those 471 days.
- The couple, who met only after Damari's 2025 release and became engaged in January 2026, are moving with deliberate speed toward a future the captivity nearly made unthinkable.
- The wedding lands as a quiet but charged counterpoint to an ongoing conflict that has claimed more than 73,000 lives in Gaza — a single moment of joy held inside an enormous, unresolved grief.
In Tel Aviv on a Thursday evening, Emily Damari — a British-Israeli woman who spent 471 days in Hamas captivity after the October 7, 2023 attacks — married Danielle Amit beneath a traditional Jewish wedding canopy. The ceremony, attended by fellow former hostages who shared her ordeal, was less a private occasion than a collective act of return: proof that life, interrupted so violently, can resume its quieter rhythms. Against the vast and still-unresolved suffering of the wider conflict, the wedding stood as one of the oldest human gestures — the choice to build a future, even when the past has not finished speaking.
Emily Damari stood beneath a traditional Jewish wedding canopy in Tel Aviv on Thursday evening, marrying Danielle Amit in a ceremony that carried far more than the usual weight of a wedding day. Damari, 30, had been abducted from her home in southern Israel on October 7, 2023 — shot in the leg and hand during the attack, losing two fingers — and held in Hamas captivity for 471 days before her release in 2025 as part of a ceasefire agreement. She met Amit after returning home, and the two became engaged in January 2026.
The guest list transformed the occasion into something beyond a personal celebration. Among those attending were fellow former hostages Romi Gonen, Doron Steinbrecher, Liri Albag, Danielle Gilboa, Omer Shem Tov, Keith and Aviva Siegal, and the Berman twins — who had been taken alongside Damari on October 7. Their presence made the ceremony a gathering of people bound by a shared ordeal, now watching one another step back into ordinary life.
The most piercing moment came from Damari's mother, Mandy, who spoke directly to the couple. She described the impossible arithmetic of captivity — the nights when imagining her daughter alive, safe, and happy beside someone she loved felt entirely out of reach. But she chose to face forward. 'Tonight, I don't want to look back at the 471 days,' she said. 'I want to look forward to all the days ahead.'
The October 7 attack that led to Damari's abduction killed approximately 1,200 people and saw 251 taken hostage. Israel's military response in Gaza has, according to the territory's health ministry, killed more than 73,430 people. Inside that vast and still-unresolved suffering, a wedding — two people choosing a future together, surrounded by others who know what it means to have been taken and returned — carried a particular, fragile significance.
Emily Damari stood in Tel Aviv on Thursday evening, preparing to marry Danielle Amit beneath a traditional Jewish wedding canopy. The ceremony marked something more than the union of two people—it was a visible return to ordinary life for a woman who had spent 471 days in Hamas captivity.
Damari, 30, was taken from her home in southern Israel on October 7, 2023, abducted alongside twins Gali and Ziv Berman from a safe room as the attack unfolded. She was shot in the leg and hand that day, losing two of her fingers. For more than fifteen months, she remained in captivity until her release in 2025 as part of a temporary ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas. She met Amit after her return, and the two became engaged in January 2026.
The wedding guest list carried its own weight. Attending were fellow former hostages: Romi Gonen, Doron Steinbrecher, Liri Albag, Danielle Gilboa, Omer Shem Tov, Keith and Aviva Siegal, and the Berman twins who had been taken alongside Damari. Their presence transformed the ceremony into something beyond a personal celebration—a gathering of people bound by a shared ordeal, now witnessing one another's return to the rhythms of ordinary life.
Damari and Amit exchanged vows in custom designs by Israeli fashion designer Oria Azran, followed by an intimate dinner with family and close friends. The statement released about the marriage called it "a joyful new chapter for Emily."
Damari's mother, Mandy, spoke during the ceremony about the weight of those 471 days. She addressed the couple directly, telling them that their wedding "means more to me than just a wedding." She described the impossible calculus of captivity—the moments when imagining this night, seeing her daughter alive and safe and happy beside someone she loved, felt beyond reach. "During those endless days and nights, there were moments when the thought of standing here tonight would have been impossible to imagine," she said. But she chose not to dwell there. "Tonight, I don't want to look back at the 471 days. I want to look forward to all the days ahead."
The October 7 attack that led to Damari's abduction killed approximately 1,200 people and resulted in 251 hostages taken. Israel's military response in Gaza has, according to the territory's health ministry, killed more than 73,430 people. Against that backdrop, a wedding—the simple act of two people committing to a future together, surrounded by others who understand what it means to have been taken and returned—carried a particular kind of significance.
Bemerkenswerte Zitate
During those endless days and nights, there were moments when the thought of standing here tonight, seeing my daughter alive, safe, happy, and standing beside the person she loves, would have been impossible to imagine.— Mandy Damari, Emily's mother, at the wedding ceremony
Tonight, I don't want to look back at the 471 days. I want to look forward to all the days ahead.— Mandy Damari
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