Israeli hostage describes his near 500-day ordeal: 'Every morning I choose life'
Eli Sharabi spent 14 months mostly in tunnels under Gaza - with often cruel, but occasionally kind captors, little food, no sunlight - and most importantly no knowledge that his British wife and teenage daughters had been killed the day he was taken.
On 7 October 2023, Eli Sharabi was kidnapped by Hamas and held for 491 days.
He and his wife Lianne and two teenage daughters Noiya and Yahel were in their home on a kibbutz in Southern Israel when the attack happened.
When Sharabi and his wife realised he was likely going to be kidnapped they made the “cold” decision to protect their daughters.
Palestinian Hamas fighters escort Israeli hostages (L-R) Ohad Ben Ami, Or Levy and Eli Sharabi on a stage before handing them over to a Red Cross team in Deir el-Balah, central Gaza, on 8 February 2025.
Abdel Kareem Hana / AP via CNN
“We are not going to fight with them. We wanted to protect our daughters. And we presume that the British passport will protect Lianne, Noiya and Yahel," he told RNZ’s Nine to Noon,
“And the minute they arrived to our house, we said that to them, they understood everything. They almost sent me to the second floor to bring this passport.
“Until the day of my release, I was sure our plan worked well, because I was kidnapped. But unfortunately, five minutes after they took me out of the house, they murdered them in my house.”
He spent the next 14 months as a captive, unaware his family had been murdered, mostly in tunnels under Gaza.
Once captured his “mission was to survive”.
The first place he was held was with a family in a Palestinian house where the father was from Hamas.
“I knew it's a very delicate relationship with the family, with my captors from Hamas. I need to respect them.
“I need to say thank you for everything they bring me. I need to be nice with a zero ego, even when they humiliate me, even the violence against me from time to time.”
After 52 days he was taken to the tunnels.
“They led us to a mosque and to a side room in the mosque. And then they opened this door at the ground. And they asked us to climb down. Of course, I refused because it looked like the perfect grave for me.
“But then they, you know, loaded their guns and pointed it to my head. And then I remember my promise to my daughters that I will come back to them and chose life again.”
The next 14 months were spent 50 metres underground, he says.
“Humiliation was on daily basis, violent from time to time, starvation on purpose, of course. And of course, this sanitary and hygienic condition was awful.
"Every six weeks, we got a shower with half a bucket of cold water, no soap, no toothpaste.”
What little they gleaned of the outside world was from snippets of conversation between their captors, he says. In this way he learned he was soon to be released.
“We were sure that we are moving to a new house and they will shave us and get us to get a shower and new clothes.
“But instead of that, they took us to other tunnel with loads of rats and roaches. That was all over, walking on us at the night, without mattresses, we slept on the floor.”
Eventually he was released and discovered the terrible news of his family’s murder, he had already learned a few days earlier his older brother had been murdered in captivity.
“They transfer us to the IDF and the social worker from the IDF approached me and introduced herself and told me that my mother and my sister are waiting for me.
“And I asked her to bring Lianne and Noiya and Yahel, but she said that my mother and my sister will tell me.
“And of course, then I knew that the worst scenario happened to me and that they didn't survive the October 7. It was a very devastating moment for me.”
Despite the terrible ordeal of the last two years, “every morning I choose life again,” he says.
“50 meters underground, you understand what is really, really, really important in life. You never miss your big house or your car, your flashy car or your bank account. You miss your family.
“You miss your friends. You just want a few more minutes with them.”
