Children like Emily Hand will be priority in any negotiated release of hostages, Taoiseach informed

Emily's family initially thought she had been killed on October 7, but was later told she had been kidnapped from Kibbutz Be’eri and taken to Gaza.

A spokesperson for the Taoiseach said: “Mr Al Thani said they are aware of the case and said that children will be a priority in any negotiated release.

When the Taoiseach met Emily Hand’s family and the Israeli Ambassador to Ireland last week, he pledged that he would use all channels of communication to pursue Emily’s release.

“Last week he spoke to the International Committee of the Red Cross and Red Crescent, having previously raised her case with the Palestinian Prime Minister, the Egyptian Foreign Minister and Prince Rashid of Jordan,” Mr Varadkar’s spokesperson said.

The comments come as Emily's father said he will believe a deal to release hostages is in place “when I see it”.

Thomas Hand initially thought his daughter Emily, who had been attending a sleepover at a friend’s house, had been killed on October 7, but was later told she had been kidnapped from Kibbutz Be’eri and taken to Gaza.

Mr Hand said at a press conference at the Israeli embassy in London on Monday morning that he was living through a “nightmare” and getting Emily back was his “reason for living”.

Mr Hand, who cried as he spoke of his missing daughter, said: “I pray I get Emily back.

I don’t know what condition she’s going to be in, but she’s going to be very broken mentally and physically and we’ll have to fix that. It’s going to take a long time to fix that.

“That’s what we’ve got to do and we will do it no matter how long it takes.

“That’s my prime focus, my reason for living and getting up in the morning every day.”

Meanwhile, heavy fighting erupted around a hospital in northern Gaza where thousands of patients and displaced people have been sheltering for weeks, as Israeli forces focus on clearing out medical facilities that they say Hamas militants are using for cover.

The advance on the Indonesian Hospital came a day after the World Health Organisation evacuated 31 premature babies from Shifa Hospital in Gaza City.

They were among more than 250 critically ill or injured patients stranded at the hospital days after Israeli forces entered the compound.

The plight of Gaza’s hospitals is at the focus of a battle of narratives over the war’s brutal toll on Palestinian civilians, thousands of whom have been killed or buried in rubble since the six-week-old war was sparked by Hamas’ rampage into southern Israel on October 7.

Israel says Hamas uses civilians as human shields, while critics say Israel’s siege and relentless aerial bombardment amounts to collective punishment of the territory’s 2.3m Palestinians.