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Introduction

In his memoir Hostage—the first published firsthand account of an Israeli taken hostage by the Palestinian terrorist organization Hamas on October 7, 2023—Eli Sharabi aims “to summarize a segment of my life that spans from the day I was abducted on October 7, 2023, until my return to Israel from Hamas captivity,”[1] a period that lasted 491 days.  Sharabi’s harrowing account of what transpired during his abduction from Kibbutz Be’eri; separation from his wife, Lianne, and two daughters, Noiya and Yahel (who, along with his brother Yossi, would all be murdered by terrorists); and captivity in the Gaza Strip not only bears witness to experiences of Hamas depravity, like starvation, physical beatings, and psychological abuse, but also testifies to the power of the human spirit, animated by faith, hope, and camaraderie, to endure such deprivations.  Expressing himself with honesty and in highly readable prose, Sharabi shares his personal reflections of what it felt like to experience what he and many other hostages experienced.

Hamas Violations of International Law

As many of CAMERA’s media critiques have demonstrated, media outlets have frequently leveled false accusations against the Jewish State while failing to identify Hamas violations of international law.  In addition to vividly describing how Hamas captors subjected Israeli hostages to physical beatings, psychological torture, lengthy periods of starvation, and lack of sanitary conditions, Sharabi’s memoir helpfully records other Hamas violations often overlooked by ostensibly objective media outlets.

Using Religious Infrastructure for Military Purposes

The first stop Sharabi’s Hamas captors make in the Gaza Strip following Sharabi’s abduction is a mosque, where he and a Thai worker named Khun, who is abducted from a kibbutz neighboring Be’eri, are forced to strip and are interrogated.  Sharabi is surprised by the appearance inside the mosque, stating, “I blink, look around, and see that we’re in what looks like a grand boardroom, with a long table and luxurious chairs, like I’ve just stumbled into a board meeting at an American corporate office, not a mosque.”[2]

Later, when Sharabi is being moved from a Gazan family’s house where he is being held hostage into a tunnel, we learn that the tunnel entrance is hidden inside a mosque.  Sharabi describes the scene:

We proceed for several minutes in silence until we reach a mosque.  There, waiting for us, is their commander: the Triangle.  This is not a good sign, I realize.  Why a mosque?  Why not another house?  Why are we going into a mosque?  Inside, the Cleaner and Nightingale take us to a side room and open a trapdoor.  Beneath the trapdoor is a shaft.  A shaft leading into a dark tunnel.[3]

This Hamas use of a mosque to conceal tunnels is consistent with CAMERA analyses documenting how Hamas has used mosques for military purposes.

Deceptively Branding a House Keeping Israeli Hostages in Captivity as UNRWA

Sharabi informs readers that windows of the house where Sharabi and a fellow hostage are kept for a period of time by Hamas captors are deceptively “draped with burlap, branded with the letters: UNRWA,” referring to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East whose terror ties CAMERA has documented.[4]

Using Human Shields

Shortly thereafter, readers are told that Sharabi was “startled by the sound of missiles being launched nearby, sparking cheers of jubilation in the neighborhood,” an instance of the terrorist use of human shields in launching missiles at Israel from within Palestinian neighborhoods,[5] terrorist behavior consistent with what CAMERA has documented.

Stealing UN Humanitarian Aid Intended for Civilians

Sharabi observes Hamas members stealing UN humanitarian aid intended for civilians in a passage found later in the book: “For the first time, we see UN aid boxes.  Big white crates brimming with food.  Our captors eat and are merry, leaving us with a few miserable crumbs from the whole feast,”[6] behavior of Hamas that CAMERA has also documented.

Hamas Conspiracy Theories and Anti-Jewish Ideology

At various points in Sharabi’s memoir, readers are given glimpses of what members of Hamas believe about Jews and the Jewish State.  Since Sharabi understands Arabic, he understands what his captors are saying when they speak to each other in that language.

In listening to his captors’ conversations, Sharabi “understand[s] they’re afraid of Israeli military ingenuity” and “think maybe the IDF planted a chip or some tracker in me to monitor them.”[7]

Sharabi tells readers that one of “the more religious and radical” captors, whom Sharabi nicknames The Cleaner, repeatedly expresses the belief “that there is no place for Jews in this land.”[8]  Similarly, another Hamas captor, whom Sharabi nicknames The Mask, tells Sharabi that “[t]his land is theirs.  All of it.”[9]  This latter captor further tells Sharabi that “[t]here will be no peace as long as we, the Jews, are on their land.”[10]

Later in the book, Sharabi informs readers that a captor identified as The Circle is “parroting Hamas talking points,” including similar slogans:

• All of Palestine is ours, and only ours.

• There’s no room for the State of Israel, and there’s no such thing.

• Go back to where your parents or grandparents came from.

• There won’t be peace as long as you’re on our land.[11]

Sharabi is under no illusions about the nature of the terrorists who broke into his Be’eri home:

The terrorists who broke into my home in Be’eri were not just looking to make ends meet.  They were medieval barbarians, whose hatred for Jews and Israel trumped their love of life.  I can’t think of any parallel to the depth of their hatred and willingness to perpetrate atrocities in the name of an ideology.[12]

Later in the book, Sharabi identifies “some things they all believe and say with absolute confidence” evidencing the ideological hostility and imperial objectives of Hamas members:

Islam is the only true path, and the land belongs to them—the whole land, everything they call Palestine.  Whether it’s the area bordering Gaza or East Jerusalem, Acre or Tel Aviv or Beit She’an: there is no room for the Jews here and no such thing as Israel.  They will not relent in their war against us until we all pack up and go back to the countries we came from, until they conquer every last inch of this land.  Sometimes[,] we sense their hatred for us just for being Jewish.  We hear them blurting, “Jewish pigs,” with disgust and scorn.  Some of them are more extreme, or perhaps only more honest, and say that their mission doesn’t end there, between the river and the sea.  They dream of establishing an Islamic empire that will conquer the whole world.  In their minds, not only is there no such thing as Israel; there is no such thing as France or Britain or Sweden[,] either.  The whole world should be Muslim.[13]

Hostages Observing Jewish and Israeli  Practices and Holidays in Captivity

In recounting his experiences in captivity, Sharabi notes that he and his fellow Israeli hostages observe various Jewish and Israeli practices and holidays in captivity.

Prayer

One Jewish practice Sharabi and his fellow hostages observe in captivity is prayer.  Sharabi relates that they would “constantly pray” to not “get sick”[14] given their conditions in captivity and to “pass the time,” with the hostage Elia described as “beginning each morning in prayer”[15] with the “traditional Jewish morning prayers out loud”[16] as the other hostages “listen[ed]”[17] while “stand[ing] and answering ‘Amen.’”[18]  Sharabi informs readers that even though he lives “a very secular life,” he finds that “traditional spaces give me strength.  They give me fulfillment.”[19]  Sharabi reveals, “Even in the early days of captivity, I find myself murmuring Shema Yisrael again and again, almost unconsciously.  Like a mantra to keep me grounded.”[20]

Shabbat and Havdalah

The hostages observe various practices associated with Shabbat and Havdalah while in captivity, with Elia reciting Kiddush over a cup of water each Friday night, Sharabi singing “Eshet Chayil” from the biblical Book of Proverbs, the hostages saying the Hamotzi blessing over a slice of pita they saved especially for this occasion, and Elia chanting the Shabbat zemirot (hymns), with the other hostages occasionally joining Elia in singing the hymns.  Sharabi movingly reflects on how observing these practices in captivity makes him feel:

I don’t know if I feel G[-]d in those moments.  But I feel power.  I feel a connection.  To my people.  To our tradition.  To my identity.  It connects me to my family.  To my childhood.  To my roots.  It reminds me why I must survive.  Who I’m surviving for.  What I’m surviving for.  It brings back glowing memories of childhood.  Of my father.  Of my mother.  Of a while tallit during Shabbat prayers.  Wine in a goblet.  Candles on the windowsill.  Opening the ark.  Torah scrolls.  A cantor singing.  A white tablecloth spread over a table overflowing with good food.  Everything that feels so far from here.  And it brings to life the whole cast of characters waiting for me.  Mom.  My siblings.  Lianne.  The girls.  I imagine returning to all of them.  I imagine their hugs.  I imagine the souls I love most enveloping me in light, whispering: Shabbat shalom, Eli.  Shabbat shalom.  It’s so good to have you home.[21]

Elia also sings Havdalah songs at the conclusion of every Shabbat.

Passover and Shavuot as well as Memorial Day and Independence Day

The Israeli hostages “lost track of the Hebrew dates,” but they try to “guess” when Jewish and Israeli holidays are taking place, so they can mark them:

In April, we assume it’s Passover time.  In early May, we assume it’s Memorial Day and Independence Day.  Around these assumed Jewish holidays, we share memories, mostly about food.  We tell each other what we usually eat at home.  I reminisce about family holidays, the feeling on the kibbutz, our Independence Day celebrations, the big Shavuot festivities.[22]

In these ways, the hostages attempt to preserve the special character of these Jewish and Israeli holidays while in captivity.

Recognizing the Good

The Israeli hostage Ori Danino spends a limited amount of time together with Sharabi in captivity.  Given that Danino was raised in a religiously observant home and knows the Birkat Hamazon (the Jewish Grace After Meals) by heart, Sharabi asks Danino to recite the Birkat Hamazon out loud after they finish eating their pitas, which Danino proceeds to do.  Sharabi movingly writes about Danino’s recitation of these words expressing gratitude:

He recites the whole blessing, to the end.  He incants, we listen quietly, and those words, unfamiliar to most of us, dissipate through the sealed tunnel, dozens of feet beneath Gaza, and enter our hearts.  I close my eyes.  The words swirl around me: You open Your hand and satisfy the desire of every living thing . . . Who provides food for all . . . Who gave our ancestors a precious, good, and spacious land . . . Have mercy, O L[-]rd our G[-]d . . . We’ve never lacked, and may we never lack . . . May He who makes peace in His heights, make peace upon us . . .[23]

The hostages also try to identity “good things” that happen to them each day.[24]  Sharabi tells readers that it is practices like these that help to produce a “circle of thanksgiving” that the hostages “stick to, cling to, cleave to.  To search for something good.  To stay optimistic.  To win.”[25]

This effort to survive is reinforced earlier in the memoir when the Israeli hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin, who along with Danino and Almog Sarusi had spent a limited amount of time with Sharabi and the other hostages before eventually being murdered by their terrorist captors, shares a quotation (“He who has a why can bear any how.”) that prompts Sharabi to appreciatively reflect:

I mull it over.  The saying feels like a gift.  It matches the spirit I am already in.  Even before hearing the words, I’m already living them.  I have a why.  Many whys.  And I’m focused on surviving, on living, on being.  On returning, alive and well, to my family and my life.  I have a why.  The first night in the tunnels passes.  Then[,] the second.  Soon[,] another will pass.  I can do this.  I can survive anything.[26]

Cooperation

On a number of occasions, the Israeli hostages cooperate with one another to achieve a desired outcome, which is experienced as a form of resistance against their terrorist captors.

Sharing Fanta

When Sharabi and other Israeli hostages are taken through another tunnel, they observe a Fanta bottle.  Noticing a bottle of water on the ground, Sharabi asks one of the captors if he can drink it.  After tasting the water in the bottle, the captor assents, after which Sharabi and the other hostages relocate to a “small room” where they “each take a swig [of the Fanta] and pass it around,” with one Israeli hostage, Elia, quietly disposing the Fanta bottle into a trash can.[27]  When another Hamas captor angrily asks, “Where’s the Fanta?” the hostages “shake [their] heads, feigning cluelessness.”[28]  Reflecting on this cooperative effort, Sharabi states, “A small act of rebellion.  A tiny, orange, sweet victory.”[29]

Receiving More Food

At a moment in their captivity during which their hunger pangs are especially evident, the Israeli hostages Sharabi, Elia, and Alon formulate a plan to have Sharabi appear to faint before the Hamas captors to convince the Hamas captors that the Israeli hostages need to receive more food.  The plan works at first, as Sharabi declares, “We win a small victory: an extra one and a half pitas per person, in addition to our regular meal.”[30]  However, as Sharabi appears to grow in strength, the captors again restrict the amount of food given to the hostages, with the hostages receiving only “one meal a day.”[31]

Helping Others

At various points in the book, Sharabi recounts his attempts to help other hostages with whom he was in captivity, both for their sake and his own.

Khun

One such hostage is Khun who, unlike Sharabi, does not speak Arabic, Hebrew, or English and is hit by terrorists when he fails to respond to terrorists’ questions.  To help Khun, Sharabi attempts “to reassure him, translate their questions, and explain what’s happening,” writing, “I know I have to support him and keep him safe.”[32]  Later, when Khun keeps crying, Sharabi relates, “I try to calm him down.  I’m playacting for his sake.  When he calms, I feel myself again.”[33]  Similarly, Sharabi states,

From the start, I understand I have a role with Khun, and I embrace it: to mediate the situation for him, to give him strength.  When there are air strikes, I gesture to tell him it’s OK, that it’s not aimed at us.  When Hamas launches rockets from nearby, I motion to explain what they mean and why he’s not at risk.  On hard days and long nights, I try, with broken words in two languages and pantomime gestures, to spark hope in him, to remind him that this is temporary, that it will pass.[34]

Almog

In the process of being moved by Hamas captors from a Gazan family’s house into a tunnel, Sharabi meets Sarusi, an Israeli hostage who had been at the Nova Festival near Reim when he tried to escape with his girlfriend and a couple friends, but was injured when the car in which they had been driving was hit by bullets from Hamas terrorists who then abducted him.  In the tunnel, the Hamas captors attempt to chain Sarusi and Sharabi together, but both refuse to be so chained, with the latter asserting, “Almog’s injured, too […] just put it on me.”[35]  Sharabi elaborates, “I keep begging him, until eventually[,] he relents and convinces the others.  I get the leg cuffs for myself.”[36]

Or

When war resumes following a temporary ceasefire, Sharabi attempts to comfort an Israeli hostage named Or who “is struggling more than the rest of us.” [37]  Sharabi “decide[s] I’ll talk to him, but I give him two days to cry it out, to wallow.  I give him time.  But after two days, tell him, ‘Or, it’s OK to cry a bit,’ resting a hand on his shoulder.  ‘But you have to snap out of it.’”[38]  When Or indicates that he cannot snap out of it, Sharabi tells Or, “It’s OK to be homesick.  It’s OK to be sad, […] But self-pity, Or, that’s the kind of thing that could break us.  It could distract us from our mission.  And our mission is to survive […] We’re not the ones to feel sorry for […] The ones waiting for us outside, they’re the unfortunate ones.”[39]

Alon

When Sharabi notices that another Israeli hostage, Alon, is not receiving as much food as other Israeli hostages, Sharabi offers him advice to help ensure Alon receives enough food:

Alon keeps getting sidelined and left with nothing to scoop.  I try to open up a conversation about it.  I believe in stating things bluntly.  But they don’t understand.  It’s not that they’re lying; they just don’t see the problem with their behavior.  I try to enlist Alon’s help to explain.  But he’s such a gentle soul that he prefers to retreat than to confront them.  After one such conversation, I tell him, “Alon, save Mr. Nice Guy for the bars on Dizengoff Street.  For parties and life outside.  Here, you’ve got to dare to speak your mind.  You’ve got to stand your ground.  You’ve got to survive.”[40]

In commenting on his relationship to Alon and the help he wishes to extend to him, Sharabi states: “I feel paternal toward Alon.  I feel a responsibility to remind him of the power he holds inside.  To give him the tools he needs: self-confidence, the ability to focus on the mission of survival, to stay strong on his own.”[41]

Conclusion

Sharabi’s memoir not only offers readers a firsthand account of Hamas terrorists’ deplorable treatment of Israeli hostages in captivity, but also paints an inspiring portrait of a man seeking to maintain a hopeful attitude while supporting other hostages in captivity.  In documenting his experiences in Hamas captivity, Sharabi sheds an important light on one of the darkest chapters in Israel’s history.

–Reviewed by David Orenstein/November 14, 2025

[1] Eli Sharabi, Hostage (Harper Influence, 2025), p. 193.

[2] Ibid. p. 12.

[3] Ibid. pp. 42-43.

[4] Ibid. p. 15.

[5] Ibid. p. 29.

[6] Ibid. p. 120.

[7] Ibid. p. 18.

[8] Ibid. p. 19.

[9] Ibid. p. 20.

[10] Ibid.

[11] Ibid. p. 60.

[12] Ibid. p. 132.

[13] Ibid. p. 147.

[14] Ibid. p. 81.

[15] Ibid. p. 61.

[16] Ibid. p. 109.

[17] Ibid. p. 61.

[18] Ibid. p. 109.

[19] Ibid.

[20] Ibid.

[21] Ibid. pp. 110-111.

[22] Ibid. p. 102.

[23] Ibid. p. 53.

[24] Ibid. p. 130.

[25] Ibid.

[26] Ibid. p. 52.

[27] Ibid. p. 77.

[28] Ibid.

[29] Ibid. p. 78.

[30] Ibid. p. 105.

[31] Ibid. p. 106.

[32] Ibid. p. 13.

[33] Ibid. p. 17.

[34] Ibid. pp. 21-22.

[35] Ibid. p. 50.

[36] Ibid.

[37] Ibid. p. 58.

[38] Ibid.

[39] Ibid.

[40] Ibid. pp. 64-65.

[41] Ibid. p. 104.