So Close Yet Worlds Apart

Beyond and Behind the Walls

Meet Alaa and Emily.

Alaa — left, dci-palestine.org (Courtesy of the Qaddoum family); Emily — right, The Times of Israel (Courtesy of the Hand Family)

Editor’s note: Emily Hand was initially reported dead on 10/7/2023. These reports proved to be incorrect as she was taken hostage by Hamas and released unharmed on 11/26/2023.

Rolling green hills, open expanses, avocado groves, and the fresh scent of eucalyptus trees; this is where Emily Kornberg Hand grew up. Idyllic — the most apt description for Kibbutz Be’eri — a place befitting the rearing of a child. Idyllic it was; idyllic it is no longer. Emily woke up on October 7th, probably thinking it was just another serene day in the beautiful place she called home. She didn’t know it would be her last. On 10/7, an atrocity befell a little girl.

Ha’aretz — Kibbutz Be’eri (Credit: Ofer Vaknin)

Not very far away, Alaa Abdullah Riyad Qaddoum, grew up on the other side of a barricade, indelibly separated from Emily. Idyllic wouldn’t be the way to describe little Alaa’s surroundings. She grew up in Shejaiya, a dense neighborhood of Gaza City with crowded streets and unremarkable cement buildings. Like many children in Gaza, Alaa didn’t grow up with clean drinking water or steady electricity and, at times, was probably too hungry for comfort.