From the Liveblog of
Saturday, February 8, 2025
In Hamas propaganda show, Eli Sharabi says he’s ‘very happy to return’ to wife and daughters, before learning soon after in Israel that they were murdered on Oct. 7
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Footage of the Hamas propaganda ceremony in Gaza this morning at which three Israeli hostages were released shows Eli Sharabi being forced to speak on the stage, before he returned to Israel and learned that his wife and three daughters were killed in the terror group’s October 7, 2023, onslaught.
After being asked in Hebrew how he is feeling by a masked Hamas gunman running the show, Sharabi says into the microphone, “I feel very, very happy today to return to my family and friends, to my wife and my daughters.”
When safely with the IDF, he reportedly told soldiers he anticipated seeing his wife and daughters. His relatives later gave him the terrible news.
Sharabi was kidnapped from his home in Kibbutz Be’eri in the Hamas massacre, while his wife Lianne, and their daughters, Noiya, 16, and Yahel 13, were murdered in their safe room.
It is apparent from the Hamas propaganda material — most of which is not being shown by Israeli media — that Sharabi knew that his brother Yossi was dead.
The other two hostages released today as part of a ceasefire deal with Hamas, Ohad Ben Ami and Or Levy, were also made to speak while on stage, carrying the now ubiquitous certificates of their release before they were handed over to the Red Cross.
The Times of Israel Community.