British-Israeli Emily Damari, 28, was held hostage by Hamas terrorists for 15 months — and on Thursday, she laid into the Pulitzer Prize Board members for honoring a man who repeatedly sided with her captors in the aftermath of the horrific October 7th attacks.

Damari took to X to write her response to the news that writer Mosab Abu Toha — whose social media was rife with accusations referring to the Israeli hostages as “killers” and questioned forensic reports detailing the brutal murders of Ariel and Kfir Bibas — had been awarded a Pulitzer Prize for his essays on Gaza.

Dear Members of the @PulitzerPrizes board,

My name is Emily Damari. I was held hostage in Gaza for over 500 days.

On the morning of October 7, I was at home in my small studio apartment in Kibbutz Kfar Aza when Hamas terrorists burst in, shot me and dragged me across the border…

— Emily Damari (@EmilyDamari1) May 8, 2025

“Dear Members of the @PulitzerPrizes board, My name is Emily Damari,” she wrote. “I was held hostage in Gaza for over 500 days. On the morning of October 7, I was at home in my small studio apartment in Kibbutz Kfar Aza when Hamas terrorists burst in, shot me and dragged me across the border into Gaza. I was one of 251 men, women, children, and elderly people kidnapped that day from their beds, their homes, and a music festival.”

“For almost 500 days I lived in terror. I was starved, abused, and treated like I was less than human. I watched friends suffer. I watched hope dim. And even now, after returning home, I carry that darkness with me — because my best friends, Gali and Ziv Berman are still being held in the Hamas terror tunnels,” she continued.

She then turned to address Toha and the prize he’d been awarded, adding, “So imagine my shock and pain when I saw that you awarded a Pulitzer Prize to Mosab Abu Toha. This is a man who, in January, questioned the very fact of my captivity. He posted about me on Facebook and asked, ‘How on earth is this girl called a hostage?’ He has denied the murder of the Bibas family. He has questioned whether Agam Berger was truly a hostage.”

“These are not word games — they are outright denials of documented atrocities. You claim to honor journalism that upholds truth, democracy, and human dignity. And yet you have chosen to elevate a voice that denies truth, erases victims, and desecrates the memory of the murdered. Do you not see what this means? Mosab Abu Toha is not a courageous writer. He is the modern-day equivalent of a Holocaust denier. And by honoring him, you have joined him in the shadows of denial,” Damari concluded. “This is not a question of politics. This is a question of humanity. And today, you have failed it.”

Damari lost two fingers on her left hand when her kidnappers shot her as they dragged her out of her apartment in southern Israel, and for months in captivity the wound did not heal due to the conditions in which she was kept. She was also shot in the leg, and the only medical treatment she was given was an expired bottle of iodine.

She was released as part of a ceasefire deal in January of 2025, after which she underwent surgery to address her injuries.

The Department of Education opened up an investigation on Thursday into Western Carolina University over reports that it housed a male alongside a female and retaliated against a student after she complained about the presence of a male in a female locker room.

The Education Department’s Office of Civil Rights announced that it had initiated a Title IX investigation into Western Carolina University over allegations that the university “has openly refused to comply with Title IX and to ensure sex-separated intimate spaces in federally funded institutions of higher education.” The announcement comes one day after the group Speech First published communications from the university showing that it was not planning on making changes in response to President Donald Trump’s executive order to keep men who identify as women out of female spaces.

“WCU’s reported contempt for federal anti-discrimination laws and indifference to, and retaliation against, girls who have spoken up about males invading their intimate spaces is simply unacceptable,” Acting Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Craig Trainor said. “The Trump-McMahon Department of Education will continue to deploy every lawful means to eradicate this wholly unnecessary and egregious violation of women and girls’ civil rights.”

In response to the investigation, the university said that it was compliant with all federal regulations.

“Western Carolina University is compliant with all current state and federal regulations and will continue to adjust any necessary campus policies and practices to remain in compliance with future changes,” the university told The Daily Wire. “At this time, we have no further comment regarding this matter.”

The probe comes one day after documents posted by Speech First and first reported on by National Review show the school’s chief compliance officer stating that the university is “not making changes based” on Trump’s executive order called “Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government.”

Another one of the components of the Education Department’s investigation is that the university launched a Title IX investigation into former student Payton McNabb after she complained about the presence of a male in a dress in a woman’s bathroom. While McNabb was later cleared of any wrongdoing, her lawyer stated that the university had encouraged the complaint to be filed against her.

“In addition to my experience discovering a male in the women’s restroom on campus, men who self-identify as transgender are entering other women’s intimate spaces like restrooms, dorm rooms and locker rooms,” McNabb said Thursday. “Female college students will not sit idly by as men take over our spaces. I’m thankful to have an administration that will stand up for us.”

The department’s action was praised by Nicole Neily, the acting executive director of Speech First.

“Actions speak louder than words, and the Department of Education’s commitment to protecting women and girls is second to none,” Neily said. “This investigation sends a clear message to colleges and universities across the country: compliance with the law is not voluntary.”