Israeli hostage held captive by Hamas may be unaware his wife,
daughters were murdered by the terror group
An Israeli father who has been held captive by Hamas for over two months may not know his wife and two daughters were murdered by Hamas, a grieving relative told The Post.
Eli Sharabi, 51, was abducted from Kibbutz Be’eri alongside his brother, 53-year-old Yossi Sharabi, during Hamas’ terror attack on Oct. 7, the brothers’ niece Shira Matalon said.
Eli’s wife, Lianne, and his daughters – Noiya, 16, and Yahel, 13 – were “brutally murdered” in the attack, Shira explained.
“I don’t think Eli knows that he lost his family, now we are the closest family he has,” Shira, 17, lamented.
“We are very worried about how he’s going to take it. I can only hope for the best, I can only hope that he’s strong and he can go through all of that and still be able to live his life. First, we need him back,” she said of her uncle’s possible response to his unimaginable loss.
“I believe in Eli…I believe that he can manage to deal with all of this and we owe it to him that we bring him home, so that he can be with the rest of his family, the ones that are left,” she added.
On the morning of Hamas’ attack, Shira herself was with her parents and brother at their home in a city in southern Israel, away from the kibbutz.
As the family hid in their own safe room, they were flooded with horrifying updates from Eli, Yossi, and their families while terrorists stormed the kibbutz, Shira recalled.
She is still haunted by one of Lianne’s last messages, which read “‘we’ve never in our lives been so afraid.’”
“I can’t even think about all the things they must have been through,” Shira said tearfully.
“I know that Yossi…he held the safe room door so the terrorists wouldn’t come in the safe, but he didn’t manage to do it…eventually they broke into the safe rooms,” she explained.
“[Hamas] shot their dog immediately,” she added.
While Eli lost his wife and daughters, brother Yossi’s family were able to escape, Shira said.
“[His wife and daughters] needed to go and hide for like seven hours so that they would not be killed by the terrorists. They were such heroes, and they managed to survive this, and he doesn’t know it,” she lamented.
Evil likes to brag, so it wouldn't be surprising if he was told. On the other hand, communication between the different factions and groups of terrorists has likely been poor, if not non-existent since Oct 7th.
Taking to the Times of Israel in mid-November, Yossi’s wife Nira said “life stopped” for her and her daughters while her husband remains a hostage.
“I’m not sure they can even breathe fresh air or be exposed to sunlight again, they must be so alone and so afraid,” Shira told The Post of the relatives’ concerns about what Eli and Yossi are enduring in Gaza.
Shira spoke to The Post during a trip to New York, where she and a few other relatives – including one of Yossi’s daughters – spoke to the Red Cross to ask for more help returning her uncles from Hamas’ clutches in Gaza.
“I came to New York [this week] to speak in the name of Noiya and Yahel, to bring their father home,” she said of her late cousins.
But even when Eli and Yossi do return, they have a very different world to come back to, Shira continued.
While Eli lost his family, Yossi’s house in the kibbutz was razed on Oct. 7.
“Yossi’s house has been burned, he has nowhere to go when he returns and his family has nowhere to live right now,” Shira told The Post.
Yossi's wife and 3 daughters survived
“All the dead bodies in the street…and the dead bodies are their friends, they grew up with them. Lying there dead or burned, and you can see the abuse they go through. Even when I tell it like this, I can’t believe it,” she said of the deadly attack.
Even though Shira’s family’s home was not attacked directly, they still suffered from extreme trauma watching their loved ones suffer so intensely.
“My parents, they broke down. I needed to call an ambulance for my dad. They lost it, they started having panic attacks,” she recalled.
Shira’s twin brother has since been called up for the army, she added.
“We were all very scared, because we realized that…the worst has happened,” Shira said.
Yossi was seen being kidnapped by thee Hamas attackers alongside 18-year-old Ofir Engel, who was visiting Kibbutz Be’eri to see his girlfriend, the Times of Israel reported.
Engel was released on Nov. 29 as part of the temporary ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas, which later collapsed due to disagreements over the release of adult male and female hostages.
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