Eli Sharabi is an Israeli man who endured unimaginable trauma at the hands of Hamas, the Palestinian terrorist group.
Meet Eli Sharabi.
— Open Source Intel (@Osint613) March 5, 2025
A few weeks ago, he emerged from Gaza, looking like a concentration camp survivor after 16 months of straight torture and starvation.
On stage, he told Hamas how grateful he was to see his wife and daughters—the thought of them kept him alive.
Hamas laughed.… pic.twitter.com/988irFHAuK
As we all know, on October 7, 2023, Hamas launched a brutal attack on southern Israel, targeting communities like Kibbutz Be’eri, where Eli lived with his family. During this assault, which killed around 1,200 people and saw 251 taken hostage, Eli was abducted and held captive in Gaza for 491 days—over 16 months. His wife, Lianne Sharabi, a British-born woman from Bristol, and their two teenage daughters, Noiya (16) and Yahel (13), were murdered by Hamas in their home’s safe room during the same attack. Eli’s brother, Yossi Sharabi, was also kidnapped that day and later killed in captivity, likely by an Israeli airstrike according to Hamas, with his body still held in Gaza as of early 2025.
While Eli was held in Hamas tunnels, starved and tortured, he was kept in the dark about his family’s fate. On February 8, 2025, as part of a ceasefire deal, Hamas released Eli along with two other hostages, Or Levy and Ohad Ben Ami, in a staged propaganda event in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza. During this handover, masked Hamas fighters forced Eli onto a stage in front of a crowd, where he was made to speak into a microphone. Under duress, he said in Hebrew, “I feel very, very happy today to return to my family and friends, to my wife and my daughters. I truly hope to see them very soon.” Hamas knew full well that Lianne, Noiya, and Yahel had been killed on October 7—they had orchestrated the murders themselves. Yet, they cruelly compelled Eli to express this false hope before handing him over to the Red Cross.
It wasn’t until after his release, when he was safely with Israeli forces, that Eli learned the devastating truth. An Israeli Defence Forces soldier broke the news to him that his wife and daughters were dead, a fact confirmed by his British in-laws, Gill and Pete Brisley, to the BBC. He had been deliberately misled. Hamas never informed him of their murders, allowing him to cling to the hope of reunion for 491 days, only to amplify his suffering upon release.
This deception was compounded by Hamas’s treatment of Eli’s brother Yossi. During the handover, they announced Yossi’s death to the crowd, suggesting Eli was aware of this loss, but they had kept him ignorant of his immediate family’s fate. Posts on X and media reports, like those from The Times of Israel and The Jerusalem Post, highlight the horror of this manipulation, with some calling it “pure cruelty” and “depraved.” Eli returned to Israel emaciated, with “sunken cheeks” and “hollow eyes,” as described by his brother-in-law Stephen Brisley, yet showed remarkable resilience.
Hamas’s lie wasn’t just omission—it was a calculated act to torment Eli, parading him as a propaganda pawn while concealing the slaughter of his loved ones. His story underscores the group’s brutality, leaving him to face a shattered reality after enduring physical and emotional hell.
Since meeting Eli on March 4, 2025, at the White House, President Trump has escalated threats against Hamas. On March 5, he warned on Truth Social of dire consequences if hostages aren’t released, saying, “Not a single Hamas member will be safe.”