During the “rehearsals” for his release, Hamas got him to say he was looking forward to seeing “my wife and daughters” even as the watching world knew that they were dead
He only learnt that Lianne and his girls had been murdered on October 7 when he was released from captivity. While Hamas told him that his beloved older brother Yossi had been killed in captivity (Yossi’s body is still in Gaza), right until the end of his 491-day captivity, Hamas had encouraged him to think they might still be alive. During the “rehearsals” for his release and then later, on the day, they got him to say he was looking forward to seeing “my wife and daughters” even as the watching world knew that they were dead.
It was only when he touched Israeli soil and was assigned to a social worker he vaguely knew that the truth dawned on him. She told him that his mother and sister were waiting for him. When he asked about Lianne and his daughters, she told them that his mother and sister would explain.
Eli Sharabi and Nicole Lampert, in Israel[Missing Credit]
As he writes in his searing book Hostage, which will have you, in turn, weeping and gasping in admiration at this man, in that moment: “I understand it, and I feel the pain pulsating through my broken body, a pain without a name and without form and nobody needs to say another word.”
His story reverberated around the world. The image of his release, alongside that of Or Levy, with whom he had been held, and his friend from Kibbutz Beeri, Ohad Ben Ami, showed the three men looking as starved as Holocaust survivors – he weighed just 44kg, about 6st 9lb. It created a worldwide swell of sympathy and within days he had gone from the tunnels of Gaza to standing with five other hostages in the White House, meeting with Donald Trump, and then to the UN, where they heard him, listened, and continued to attack Israel.
Hostage is the first book by an Israeli hostage to be released and has become the fastest-selling book in Israeli history. Eli is many things, including, in Israel, a celebrity. As we enter the lobby of the Dan Accadia Hotel, in Herzliya, the receptionist almost faints with excitement.
Walking to find somewhere to conduct our interview, he is stopped for selfies. Even mid-interview, we keep being interrupted by people wanting to touch him, talk to him. Some of them are in tears as they describe how much he and his book meant to them.
One fan’s emotion brings tears to my eyes as she cries and holds her heart. Even though I can’t understand her words, I know what she is saying because reading the book made me feel it too. Seeing me wiping away a tear, he chides me: “I thought I you were meant to be British! Where is your stiff upper lip?” This impish humour is who Eli Sharabi is: he is more than just a survivor.
His book describes his life in captivity, but it is also a way of being. Eli refuses to be a figure of tragedy. He wears his heartache and torture every day, but he is determined not to let it define him. And I think it is that, as much as the entirety of his story in captivity, which has so entranced the Israeli nation. They – and we Jews in the diaspora too – need to see a chink of light. And he has positivity in spades.
While deep in the tunnels of Gaza with fellow hostages Alon Ohel, Or Levy and Eliya Cohen, he initiated a nightly ritual where they would discuss something positive that had happened: “I didn’t get beaten up … I got an extra half-a-piece of pitta … the worst terrorist wasn’t on duty”. He encouraged his fellow hostages to share, teaching them there was power in teamwork.
Freed: Eli Sharabi (centre) with Israeli President Isaac Herzog and Polish President Karol Nawrocki at the March of the Living at Auschwitz, in AprilAFP via Getty Images
The book is unflinching about the fact that this wasn’t always easy. When you are hungry and determined to survive, you will grab at food. But by working as a team, they realised that each terrorist had a favourite hostage. And that if they asked at the right time, they might get a precious extra piece of pita bread to share.
“When I got to Gaza, I went into survivor mode, but it was Hersh Goldberg-Polin, with whom I spent a few days the tunnels, who gave my feelings a name. He described a Viktor Frankl quote, ‘If you have a why, you can bear any how,’ and that was how I felt. From that moment, I had to remind myself and the others of this sentence that we just had to survive, we had to get through very difficult situations to survive. We had to not give up. Because it would have been easy to give up.
“I knew I could not expect from someone who is half my age to have the same tools as me. It's not fair to expect that. So I explained to them how I felt. I told them, ‘You can cry, you can break, but never lose your faith. Always believe it is just a matter of time until we get released’.
There were conflicts and arguments. But at the end of the day, they understood that we needed to survive together.”
What is interesting, too, is Eli’s description of his proximity to the terrorists. The book brings out their humanity, despite their cruel nature. Some were kinder towards the hostages. The hostages realised too that if they got the captors – or at least some of them – on their own, they were more likely to give an extra piece of food. But when together, the terrorists would try to outdo each other in trying to hurt the hostages. Once, one attacked Eli so severely that his ribs were broken.
“You have to learn to manage them,” says Eli of his captors. “They could be very cruel. They humiliated us on a daily basis. But you cannot hate them, because you cannot survive by that. So you have to learn to speak to them normally and respectfully just to survive, to be able to eat, go to the toilet. They weren’t all evil, but we were their hostage; if I’d had the opportunity to escape by killing them, I would have shot them. If they were told to, they would have shot me.”
When he was finally released, Eli had no body fat and his muscles had practically wasted away. But doctors were amazed to find that his internal organs were all healthy. They did several rounds of tests because they couldn’t believe quite how healthy he was.
Since being released, as well as writing this book, Eli has been around the world, advocating to release the final hostages. He has spoken to world leaders – frequently admonishing them – and to packed houses of fellow Jews.
I miss my family a lot but most of the time I remember their smiles and the good days we had together
Despite everything, mentally, he is better than anyone could have expected. Even so, I am surprised when he tells me: “I am happy”. And he looks it.
“I have sad moments but I am not angry and I am not sad,” he says. “I miss my family a lot but most of the time I remember their smiles and the good days we had together. Most of the time I am happy. I am surrounded by my family and my friends. I am getting to do some great things, with lectures and my book. I am happy in my life.
“I have all this love surrounding me. I have a great family who fought for me for 491 days. My friends stopped their lives as well. You know, they didn't have to, but they stopped their lives. Fought for me. Supported my family. So you understand how meaningful you are for people. So, I don't feel I can stay in bed and cry all day. Not when all these people fought for me. The minimum thing I can do is to wake up every morning and to be strong and to move on with my life.
“I know I am very lucky to be alive. I have a second chance. It is amazing. And freedom is priceless.”
Eli Sharabi’s Hostage is out on October 9
