Nine-year-old freed Israeli hostage Emily Hand still struggles to talk about her time in Hamas captivity more than two months later, often using code words to feel more comfortable addressing it, her father says.

Thomas Hand, Emily’s dad, said in a new interview with the Israeli network Kan that his daughter does not say much about her harrowing ordeal.

“Just every now and then, [she gives] little snippets of information,” he said. “But we’re not actually even allowed to question her in any way, from the psychiatrists’ point of view. They said, ‘No, whatever she wants to say voluntarily, let it come out.’ “

When Emily does talk about what she’d gone through, she uses the names of foods or things she does not like as code words to describe her time as a captive, her dad said.

Turning to Emily during the interview, he asked, “What’s Zeitim [Hebrew for olives]?”

“Terrorists,” the girl replied.

“Any food or item that she doesn’t like, she transfers that word into code,” the dad explained.

Asked why she has devised this code system, the Israeli-Irish girl, who was just 8 years old when she was kidnapped from a kibbutz during the Oct. 7 attack, replied: “Sometimes it is uncomfortable for me to say these words.”

The father said that from the time Emily was taken until her release in a prisoner exchange in November, she was whisked by her captors — most of them men — from house to house in Gaza, “presumably taking one step ahead of the IDF,” he said.

Emily said that in captivity — which she calls “the box” — none of the terrorists were ever nice to her.

She and the other kidnapped children also were warned to not make any noise while in captivity, her father has said — which likely led to her only speaking in whispers after her release. 

At one point, her dad said, a Hamas goon threatened his child, telling her: “Uskut [Arabic for be quiet] or I’ll kill you with this knife.”

Thomas Hand said his daughter is “making progress” and recovering from her trauma, but he noted that she has returned from Gaza “a bit more mature” but at the same time “insecure.

“She always wants to know that the door is locked, that the shutters are down,” the dad said. “She wants to feel secure in the house.”

The father made international headlines when, thinking that his child had been killed by terrorists during the deadly assault on Kibbutz Be’eri, he told reporters that his daughter dying “was the best possibility” as opposed to her being tortured.

After discovering that she was alive, the dad appeared on CNN to take back his words and broke down as he feared for her safety inside Hamas’ tunnel system. 

Emily celebrated her 9th birthday in captivity, but a week later she was among the first group of hostages freed on Nov. 24, during the short-lived cease-fire between Israel and Hamas. 

The little girl was pictured running to her father’s side as he embraced and kissed her forehead while crying during their emotional reunion. 

Although his daughter was kidnapped for about seven weeks, Thomas Hand said she thought she’d been gone for a year, which he described as a “punch in the guts.” 

Despite Emily’s harrowing time as a hostage, her dad noted that her days were brightened by fellow hostage Hila Rotem-Shoshani, 13, with the two girls looking out for one another and remaining close friends after surviving their ordeal.

Israel estimates that there are more than 100 hostages still alive in Gaza after more than 123 days in captivity, with no sign of another exchange deal coming any time soon.