Hostage

By: Larry Gordon

A few days ago, I finished reading the book by former hostage Eli Sharabi who was held by Hamas for almost 500 days under the most inhumane conditions. His riveting story of being held prisoner underground in Gaza is both difficult to read and impossible to put down.

A few weeks ago, I wrote about attending an event at the Palm Beach Synagogue where Eli Sharabi was interviewed by Rabbi Moshe Scheiner, with Eli providing deep personal insight into what he endured during that period. The book delves much deeper into the story, almost taking you into those suffocating, filthy tunnels.

This is where Eli spent approximately 490 days with about three other hostages. He was 51 at the time, older than his fellow abductees, and based on his life experience, they looked up to him.

Eli moved from Tel Aviv to Kibbutz Be’eri 36 years ago with a degree in economics. Based on that knowledge, he was appointed manager, and made the community run with financial responsibility.

In the book, Eli makes it clear that from his childhood and through all his years in Be’eri, like most of the people in the Gaza envelope, religious observance was not a key factor in his life or the lives of the people who lived there.

We were in Be’eri and nearby Kfar Aza shortly after October 7th, actually in December 2023. At the time, everywhere we turned we saw destruction. The relatively modest homes that dotted these communities were either wrecked by bombs or set on fire until they burned to the ground.

At the time, we were still able to hear the booms of cannon fire from Israel into Gaza. Our guide was able to discern which of the booms were shot by the IDF and which were coming from the other direction aiming at Israel.

Hostage is a riveting read. We learned how the Hamas terrorists tore into homes, extricating Eli from his wife Lianne and two daughters, Noiya and Yahel, and whisking him off to the dungeons of Gaza where he miraculously survived 491 days.

Through the narrative, Eli can only imagine what happened to his wife and daughters after he was abducted to Gaza. He recalls telling them not to worry, that he would be back. At the time and through his entire 491 days of captivity, Eli had no way of knowing that his wife and daughters were murdered by the terrorist just a few minutes after he was taken.

Yet, he writes about how he thought of them and longed for them, and knew in his heart that they are doing everything possible to arrange for his release from the savages who held him in Gaza.

Through the book we learn so much about his thought process, what he was dreaming about and hoping for. The book was written in Hebrew and excellently translated into English.

The main idea throughout the narrative was how Eli was able to survive the intense starvation his abductors forced upon him. The food the terrorists provided was extremely minimal, which made survival tenuous. Sharabi describes graphically how, on the few occasions when he was able to see himself in one of the terrorist’s mirrors, he was shocked by how gaunt and emaciated he was.

Throughout his long captivity, Eli was the strongest of the group, believing in his heart and soul that he would survive and one day be reunited with his family.

With rare exceptions, the Hamas terrorists were uncaring, inhumane beasts. Frequently, it was an ordeal to relieve oneself in the room that served as a bathroom for the small group. The pita they received once a day was mostly of a minuscule size and very often stale.

Eli and his fellow captives were able to tell what was going on above them in Gaza based on how harshly they were being treated by their captors and guards. When the Hamas beasts thought they were scoring victories, they would sometimes share a bit more food with the hostages than usual. When Israel intensified their bombing campaigns, and things were not looking good for Hamas, they denied them food and increased their beatings.

An additional interesting aspect of the hostage narrative is the relationships the hostages—especially Sharabi—managed to strike up with their captors. There were times, he writes, when you could almost discern a human side to them and an unhappiness with the job they had to do, which was to beat, starve, and occasionally murder people.

Most often, the Hamas terrorists would tell the captives that they had no business on their land. Eli told the terrorists that one of the captives, Alon, had come to Israel from Iran. Eli asked them whether they thought there was a place for a man like Alon to return to in Iran. He was just illustrating the nonsensical thought process of the terrorists.

Through up close observation, Sharabi was able to observe the extent of the brainwashing these people (some in their 20s and 30s) had undergone while growing up in Gaza, believing, due to Palestinian propaganda, that all Israel wants is to kill them when the reverse is true.

The story within the story here is what the hostages were imagining or at least hoping was happening on the outside and what was actually happening.

It’s been written here in the past that the basic religion of the Jews in the Gaza envelope was “peace.” If there was a low-level secondary religion then perhaps it was Judaism.

From the time he was taken captive, Sharabi hoped that because his wife Lianne was British and possessed a British passport, as did their daughters, that somehow the terrorists would spare them. That was a proven fallacy. Anyone who lived there regardless of national origin was considered a target.

Upon further research, while he doesn’t explicitly say so in the book, Eli Sharabi’s hope was that since his wife and daughters were not Jewish that somehow their lives would be saved. As stated above, they were all murdered just a few minutes after Eli was abducted to Gaza.

Eli Sharabi wrote a beautiful and moving book that genuinely takes us into those dark, foreboding underground tunnels. The story of his survival and how he endured 491 days of torture until he was freed is compelling and mesmerizing.

He states that all along, what kept him alive was his will to live. And that’s how the book concludes with those important words: “And now life.” 

Read more of Larry Gordon’s articles at 5TJT.com. Follow 5 Towns Jewish Times on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter for updates and live videos. Comments, questions, and suggestions are welcome at 5TJT.com and on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.