Freed hostage Eli Sharabi tells UN Security Council how Hamas steals UN aid to ‘eat like kings’ and starve the hostages

By Nava Freiberg 20 March 2025, 4:57 pm 15 Edit

Released hostage Eli Sharabi holds up a photo of his family as he speaks at the UN Security Council in New York on March 20, 2025. Sharabi’s wife Lianne and their daughters, Noiya, 16, and Yahel, 13, were killed by terrorists in their home’s safe room at Kibbutz Be’eri on October 7, 2023 (Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images/AFP)

In his address to the United Nations Security Council, Eli Sharabi, a former hostage released by the Hamas terror group in Gaza last month, describes how Hamas terrorists stole UN aid and withheld it from Israeli hostages and Gazan civilians.

“Remember this,” says Sharabi, “Hamas eats like kings, while hostages starve.”

“I know you discuss the humanitarian situation in Gaza very often,” Sharabi tells members of the Security Council, who held a meeting on the topic of aid entering Gaza on Tuesday, “but let me tell you as an eyewitness, I saw what happened to that aid: Hamas stole it.”

“I saw Hamas terrorists carrying boxes with the UN and UNWRA emblems on them into the tunnels, dozens and dozens of boxes, paid for by your government,” Sharabi continues.

“They would eat many meals a day from the UN aid in front of us, and we never received any of it,” continues Sharabi.

He calls for the UN to work tirelessly for the remaining 59 hostages in Gaza, who are being “chained, starved, beaten, and humiliated” in captivity.

“No more excuses, no more delays,” says Sharabi. “Bring them all home.”