From the Liveblog of
Friday, March 7, 2025
Ex-hostage Eli Sharabi meets with UK’s Starmer, who vows to ‘redouble efforts’ to free remaining captives
Recently released hostage Eli Sharabi met this morning with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer at 10 Downing Street, a statement published on behalf of Sharabi says.
Sharabi, 53, was abducted from his home in Kibbutz Be’eri on October 7, 2023, and was released from Hamas captivity on February 8. His wife Lianne and his teenage daughters Noiya and Yahel, who were British nationals, were murdered in the Hamas onslaught.
His brother Yossi was also taken hostage, and was likely killed in an IDF strike in Gaza. His body is still being held by terrorists.
Starmer expressed his deep sorrow for their deaths.
Sharabi, who is not a British citizen, thanked Starmer during their meeting “for the UK taking responsibility for him as a hostage with close British connections, and for working toward his release for over a year,” says the statement.
It adds that Sharabi asked the British leader to continue working for the release of the remaining 59 hostages, alive and dead, including his brother.
According to the statement, Starmer told Sharabi that he had read the transcript of a recent interview he gave in Israel, with the “Uvda” program, and that it had “moved him deeply.”
“Inhuman is a word that is used too often, but your experience warranted that word,” Starmer is quoted as having told Sharabi, who lost 40 percent of his body weight in captivity and only learned of his family’s fate upon his return to Israel.
Starmer vowed that the British government will “do everything we can” and “redouble our efforts” to push for the release of the remaining hostages.
Sharabi presented Starmer with a letter, and a framed copy of a cartoon published in the Times showing a picture of Holocaust survivors at a Nazi concentration camp with the caption “Never again,” beside an illustration from his own release last month and the caption “Again.”
He presented US President Donald Trump a copy of the same image during a meeting at the White House earlier this week.
Starmer heard firsthand from Sharabi about the horrific conditions in which he was held for nearly 500 days by the terrorist organization Hamas, during which he was beaten and starved, a statement issued by the Hostages Families Forum says. “Eli stated, ‘I never lost hope of returning home’.”
The Times of Israel Community.