Israeli father said he punched the air with relief when he heard Hamas had killed 8-year-old daughter as the alternative would have been 'worse than death'

• A father said he was relieved to find out that his daughter, 8, had been killed by Hamas.
• He said being taken as a hostage to Gaza would have been "worse than death."

A grief-stricken father said he was relieved that his eight-year-old daughter had been killed in a Hamas attack because the alternative would have been "worse than death."

Thomas Hand told CNN described hearing the news that his daughter was killed, two days after the attack. "

They just said we found Emily, and she's dead." He said he punched the air, "I went 'yes!' I went 'yes!' and smiled," the father said while fighting back tears. "Because that is the best news of the possibilities that I knew."

"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."

Hand said she would have been terrified every minute if she'd been held captive in Gaza and could have been imprisoned in the enclave for years.

"So death was a blessing. An absolute blessing," he said.

Emily was killed by Hamas fighters who stormed Be'eri Kibbutz and massacred over 100 Israeli civilians in a terrorist attack.

Her father, who is originally from Ireland, said the child had been at a sleepover with friends the night before the attack.

Israel's ambassador to the United Nations said that between 100 and 150 people were taken hostage by Hamas fighters and taken into Gaza.

Hamas' attacks on Israel killed 1,300 people, the Israel Defense Forces said. Israel began bombarding the Gaza Strip with airstrikes in response, killing over 2,000 people, according to the Gaza health ministry.

Hamas threatened to execute a hostage for every civilian home that Israel bombed without warning. So far, Hamas has not followed through with this threat.

Israel has cut off power, water, and other supplies to Gaza, and Israel's energy minister said they would not reverse this until all of the hostages were home.

Israel has warned 1.1m Palestinians living in north Gaza to evacuate south, and thousands have been fleeing by vehicle or on foot, reports say, and two routes can be used between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. local time on Saturday. The UN called the order to civilians to flee was "horrendous."

An X post by the IDF spokesman for the Arab media said: "If you care about yourself and your loved ones, go south as instructed."