Freed hostage Eli Sharabi marks 2 years since wife, daughters killed: 'Unimaginable loss'

Freed hostage Eli Sharabi marks two years since his wife and teenage daughters were murdered on October 7, 2023, with a call for the return of all those held in Gaza, including the body of his brother, Yossi.

“Two years have passed since the day everything changed for me,” he writes on Facebook.

“On 7/10/23 our peaceful and happy life became hell, mourning, and unimaginable loss that will accompany me every moment until my last day… A longing that is getting stronger for pure souls, my wife, Lianne, my daughters Noiya and Yahel, and Yossi my brother,” he writes.

“However since my release, every morning I choose a life full of action and hope,” Sharabi says.

“These days, I and the whole Sharabi family are holding our breath in the presence of hope, for the return of Yossi my brother for a proper burial, and the return of Alon Ohel, my dear friend, and all the hostages. We’ve suffered enough, we deserve a different reality. We want to start healing,” he says.

Sharabi, 53, was freed in February, after 491 days of captivity. It was only upon his release that he learned that his wife and two teenage daughters had been murdered in their Kibbutz Be’eri home on October 7, 2023.

He weighed just 44 kilograms (97 pounds) when he was freed. US President Donald Trump said he and the other two hostages released alongside him “looked like Holocaust survivors.”

Sharabi has said there can be no closure for him until the return of all the hostages, including his closest companion in captivity, Ohel, and the body of his older brother, Yossi.