The emily damari hostage search now points to a new chapter in the former captive’s life: Emily Damari married Israeli food influencer Danielle “Dani” Amit in a Tel Aviv wedding celebration on August 27. The Jerusalem Post reported the ceremony on August 28, describing Damari as a former Gaza hostage and saying the couple had become engaged in January 2026.
The Times of Israel separately reported that Damari and Amit married on Thursday night in Tel Aviv. Its account described the event as an emotional ceremony and said Damari had survived 471 days in captivity. The two reports identify the same current event while making clear that Damari is no longer being held hostage.
Damari was released on January 19, 2025, after being abducted from Kibbutz Kfar Aza on October 7, 2023, according to the published reports. She was freed alongside Romi Gonen and Doron Steinbrecher. The current wedding coverage places that earlier captivity in the background of the ceremony rather than presenting it as an ongoing hostage case.
Her mother, Mandy Damari, spoke during the celebration. The Jerusalem Post reported that she described the emotional distance between the period when she feared she might not see her daughter again and the wedding night, when Emily was alive, safe and beginning a new stage of her life. The wording was part of a family speech reported from the event.
The ceremony also brought together other former hostages and close friends, including Gonen, Steinbrecher, Liri Albag, Danielle Gilboa, Omer Shem Tov, Keith and Aviva Siegal, and Gali and Ziv Berman. Their presence was reported by the Jerusalem Post and the Times of Israel as part of the gathering around the couple.
The Times of Israel described the wedding as a “reverse wedding”, an Israeli format in which the meal comes before the ceremony. It also reported that Damari lowered the veil over Amit’s hair before the couple walked down the aisle. Those details came from the outlet’s account of the ceremony and from material shared around the event.
Damari and Amit met after Damari’s release and announced their engagement in January 2026, one year after she returned from captivity. The current reports therefore connect the wedding to a publicly reported engagement and release timeline, but do not provide a broader statement about the couple’s private life beyond the ceremony.
For readers encountering the older hostage keyword today, the verified update is that Damari is a former hostage who has married Amit in Tel Aviv. The wedding took place on August 27, and the latest reports were published the following day. No current source reviewed for this article says that Damari remains in captivity.




