On October 7, 2023, everything changed.
At dawn, Hamas terrorists broke into Kibbutz Be’eri. In a few hours, a place characterized by everyday life, family life and security was transformed into a scene of fire, chaos and death. For Eli Sharabi, the entire world he had built together with his wife Lianne and their teenage daughters Noiya and Yahel was shattered.
He himself was dragged away as a hostage. What followed were 491 days of darkness.
Deep down in Gaza’s tunnel system, Eli Sharabi fought to survive. Day after day, he lived on starvation rations. He was beaten, humiliated and kept chained. The air was suffocating, hygiene non-existent and the future a black hole. Yet he clung to a single thought: that one day he would see his family again.
He did not know that they were already dead.
In the book ”Hostage”, Sharabi depicts the brutal reality behind the headlines. It is the story of a man pushed to the limit of human endurance – and yet who refused to give up. Of the hunger that never let up. Of the nights when every sound could mean beating. Of prison guards who ate their fill in front of starving hostages.
But it is also a story of something else: of resilience.
Of friendships born in the dark. Of the strange ability to find meaning when all seems lost. And of a decision that Eli made over and over again: to choose life.
Sharabi, who has Yemeni and Moroccan roots, used his fluent Arabic to navigate his dangerous existence. But his most powerful weapon became something else entirely. Every night, he gathered his fellow prisoners and forced them to name just one positive thing that had happened during the day. Maybe someone had been given a cup of sweet tea. Maybe a particularly brutal guard had stayed away. It sounds insignificant
But in the darkness of the tunnels, these small moments became lifelines.
“I had to be strong for them,” he later said. “I didn’t have the privilege of breaking down.”
For the first 52 days, he was held captive in a house in Gaza. Then he was taken underground. There, months of hunger, illness, chains around his legs, and an existence where time seemed to cease to exist awaited him. At the same time, he clung to the belief that Lianne, Noiya, and Yahel were still alive.
When he occasionally saw images of demonstrations demanding the hostages’ release, hope grew. Someone was fighting for him. Someone was waiting for him. On February 8, 2025, freedom came.
Together with Ohad Ben Ami and Or Levy, he was brought out of the tunnels and handed over to the Red Cross. During the Hamas-staged release ceremony, he learned that his brother Yossi had been killed.
That was just the beginning.
It was only when he returned to Israel and met his brother Sharon and his mother Hannah that he learned the truth. His wife. His daughters. All three had been murdered on October 7.
The family he had survived to return to no longer existed.
After 491 days in captivity, Eli weighed only 44 kilograms. He had lost more than 30 kilograms of his body weight. But not his will to live.
After his release, he became one of the strongest voices for the remaining hostages. He has spoken before the UN Security Council, visited the White House and met with world leaders. At the same time, he has repeatedly returned to the message that helped him survive the tunnels: Gratitude.
In May 2025, Eli Sharabi published the book “The Hostage,” which became the fastest-selling book in Israeli history. When it was published in English, it quickly reached the bestseller lists in both the US and the UK.
“The Hostage” is a story of unimaginable loss. But also of the human ability to rise from the darkness when all hope seems lost.
Before the Hamas terrorist attacks, many in Kibbutz Be’eri were active in the peace process, he tells journalists.
– It was the best place to raise your children, they had a wonderful childhood. I just remember it with a smile, says Sharabi.
– The irony is that it was the people who tried the most who were hit the hardest by October 7th.
