British grandparents of slain Be’eri teens hope their father will return home soon
Gillian and Pete Brisley, whose daughter Lianne Sharabi and granddaughters Noiya and Yahel were murdered Oct. 7, tidy house and pray for hostage son-in-law Eli Sharabi to be freed
Gillian and Pete Brisley are picking up the pieces of their shattered lives. They are cleaning up the house where their daughter and granddaughters were murdered by Hamas on October 7, in hopes that their son-in-law — Eli Sharabi, believed to be held captive in Gaza — may have something to come home to.
The broken glass from the terrorists’ break-in has been cleaned up. Their dead relatives’ clothes still need to be packed away.
“We really didn’t want him to come back and see the state it was in,” said Gillian Brisley, whose daughter Lianne Sharabi, 48, was killed in her home in Kibbutz Be’eri during Hamas’s rampage, along with two daughters: Noiya, 16, and Yahel, 13. “All we can do is hope and pray that he is in Gaza. And at some time he will come back.”
The terrorists broke into the Sharabi home on October 7, shot the family dog, then took the family hostage in their safe room and set fire to the house.
Eli’s body was the only one not found among the rubble, and he is presumed captive, although there has been no sighting of him on social media or in photos or videos posted by Hamas. Family said that the bodies of his wife and daughters, who all held dual UK-Israeli citizenship, were found in an embrace.
Dozens of families whose relatives were taken to Gaza as hostages have endured a nightmare beyond their comprehension. Nearly five months into the Israel-Hamas war, they remain hopeful that the remaining hostages will be released, but are growing increasingly desperate for a resolution. After the fits and starts of multiple rounds of negotiations, they fret that both Israelis and the world are losing interest in their struggle.
When Hamas terrorists stormed through southern Israel in October, they killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and kidnapped 253 others, including women, children and older adults.
More than 100 hostages, mostly women, children and foreign nationals, were freed in a late November deal that also brought about a weeklong halt in the fighting and the release of 240 Palestinians imprisoned by Israel. Negotiations to bring about the release of the remaining hostages appear to have stalled.
Israel believes that of the 134 remaining hostages, at least 30 were killed on October 7 or died in captivity — including Eli’s brother, Yossi Sharabi.
Since the war began, Israeli forces have freed three of them. The hostages are believed to be held deep inside Hamas’s extensive tunnel network in Gaza, or in other hideouts. Israeli forces killed three hostages in December, mistaking them for Hamas operatives.
The Brisleys, who live in South Wales, say they’ve tried to engage authorities in the United Kingdom to assist in bringing their son-in-law home, but describe “all talk and no action.”
Bullet holes mark most of the walls at the home of their daughter and son-in-law, Eli Sharabi. The oven door is shattered, and the TV screens too. Nearby homes were torched by terrorists, and their roofs blasted off during fighting on October 7. As the Brisleys spoke, smoke could be seen rising over the skies of Gaza as the booms from Israeli strikes echoed.
The Brisleys have collected their daughter’s childhood teddy bear and her shawls, but they still need to clean the deck and the sofa cushions in the top room.
“The hope is that Eli is alive,” said Gillian. “You have to have hope. If you haven’t got hope, you haven’t got anything.”
