April 24, 2025
UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Freed Israeli hostage Eli Sharabi, who was beaten, chained, and starved while held for 491 days by Hamas terrorists, expressed his anger during an appearance at the U.N. Security Council on Thursday for having to suffer for so long and worry every day about being killed.
“Where was the United Nations? Where was the Red Cross? Where was the world?” Sharabi asked.
He challenged the U.N.’s most powerful body: “If you stand for humanity prove it" by bringing home the 59 hostages still in Gaza, many of whom are believed to be dead.
The fate of the remaining hostages became more uncertain after Israel on Tuesday ended a six-week break in the fighting that had allowed for the return of some hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners.
Sharabi said the council talked about the need to get humanitarian aid to Palestinians in Gaza, but he saw Hamas terrorists eating stolen food from dozens of boxes marked with U.N. emblems while the hostages starved. They were given maybe a piece of pita and a sip of tea a day, and an occasional dry date, he said.
When he was released on Feb. 8, Sharabi said he weighed about 97 pounds — less than the weight of his youngest daughter, who was killed along with his wife and older daughter in Hamas’ surprise terror attack in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, along with about 1,200 others. He was among 251 people taken hostage.
The United States in November vetoed a U.N. Security Council resolution demanding an immediate cease-fire in Gaza because it was not linked to an immediate release of the hostages.
The Palestinians and their supporters then went to the 193-member General Assembly, which adopted a resolution in December demanding a ceasefire and reiterating its demand for the release of the hostages. Unlike Security Council resolutions, though, those passed by the General Assembly are nonbinding.
Sharabi’s appearance before the council, the second by a freed hostage, followed an Israeli request last week for a meeting on the plight of the hostages.
Sharabi made no mention of Israeli actions, except to say that on the morning of Oct. 7, when he heard that militants were inside Kibbutz Be'eri where he lived, he reassured his wife not to worry: “The army will come, they always come.” That morning, they never came.
He told the council he came to speak for 24-year-old Alon Ohel, a fellow hostage whom he left behind in the tunnel, and all others, including his older brother, Yossi, who was killed but whose body remains in Gaza.
“Bring them all home. Now!” Sharabi said.
