Emaciated hostages Eli Sharabi, Or Levy and Ohad Ben Ami freed after 16 months

Daily News Article   —   Posted on February 10, 2025

(by Emanuel Fabian and Times of Israel staff) – Three hostages abducted during the October 7, 2023, attack were released by Hamas on Saturday, with the men looking gaunt and unsteady on their feet as they were released by the terror group, 16 months after they were kidnapped from Kibbutz Be’eri and the Nova music festival.

Eli Sharabi, 52, Or Levy, 34, and Ohad Ben Ami, 56, all appeared extremely thin and frail, and while they were able to walk, seemed to be unsteady on their feet.

Sharabi and Levy were coming home to a tragic new reality — Sharabi’s wife and two teenage daughters were murdered on October 7, and Levy’s wife was also murdered by Hamas that day.

According to reports, Sharabi did not know that his wife and daughters had been killed. His mother and sister, who reunited with him on his arrival back in Israel, told him the terrible news, having prepared ahead of time for how to break it to him, the report says.

Eli Sharabi, daughters, Yahel, 13 and Noiya, 16, and his wife Lianne. Yahel, Noiya and Lianne were murdered by Hamas terrorists on Oct. 7, 2023.

It was unclear if Levy had known about his wife.

Or Levy and his wife Eynav prior to Oct. 7, 2023. Eynav was murdered by Hamas terrorists on Oct. 7, 2023.

Their relatives have received guidance from professionals on how to deal with the situation.

Michal Cohen, the mother of Ben Ami, said she was devastated to see her son look so thin and unwell.

“He looks terrible. He is 57, but he looks ten years older. It is so sad for me to see him like this,” she said. “He looked like a skeleton.”

Tal Levy, brother of Or Levy, told Channel 12 that his brother “looks very, very thin, and it’s indeed very difficult to see him,” but “he’s coming back and he’ll recover.” He stressed that “today more than ever: all the hostages need to come back…we must see this deal through.”

Sharabi and Ben Ami were made to wear brown outfits declaring them to be “prisoners” while Levy was dressed in an approximation of an Israel Defense Forces uniform — even though he is a civilian. Hamas considers all Israeli men under the age of 50 to be soldiers.

Hamas set up a stage for the handover to the Red Cross in Deir al-Balah, decorated with a sign declaring “total victory,” the catchphrase used by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu throughout the war.

Deir al-Balah, a city in central Gaza, is one of the few areas in the Strip where the IDF had not intensively operated with ground forces. Unlike other areas of Gaza, most of the buildings in Deir al-Balah are standing. Deir al-Balah was also part of the Israeli-designated “humanitarian zone,” where most aid was directed.

As has now become a regular part of the proceedings, representatives of the [useless and irrelevant] International Red Cross sat at desks on the stage to sign the so-called handover documents produced by the terror group. None of the hostages had been visited by the humanitarian organization while held captive.

[Before they were they were handed over to the Red Cross, the hostages were paraded on stage by the Hamas terrorists in an effort to further demean and humiliate them. As with the previous hostages released in this Phase 1, the three men were presented with a certificate saying they had been held hostage, but then were forced to speak, which hadn’t been done before.  Family members said they were “horrified” by the “grotesque spectacle” of the exchange.].

Considering it Hamas propaganda, Israeli outlets have not reported what the men were made to say.

The Red Cross transported the freed hostages to IDF and Shin Bet forces inside Gaza, after which they were escorted out of the Strip to a military facility near the border to reunite with family members and undergo initial assessments by doctors and mental health officers.  …..

The Hostages and Missing Families Forum urged the immediate release of the remainder of Israeli hostages after images emerged of the three men looking severely malnourished and frail.

“The horrifying images of Ohad, Eli, and Or reveal the devastating toll of 491 days in Hamas captivity,” the forum said. “These are men who have endured hell itself. This is a crime against humanity.

“These disturbing images show the entire world the desperate reality facing every hostage still held in Gaza. These images evoke the horrifying pictures from the liberation of the [Nazi death] camps in 1945, the darkest chapter of our history. We have to get ALL OF THE HOSTAGES out of hell,” the forum statement said. “There can be no more delays – a second stage of the hostage deal must be implemented immediately.”

…In exchange for the 3 innocent hostages held by Hamas, Israel released 183 Palestinian prisoners, including 18 who have been serving life sentences for deadly terrorist attacks on Israelis, 54 serving long sentences and 111 who were detained in the Gaza Strip during the war. …

So far, 16 Israeli hostages of the 33 children, women and older men set to be released in the first, 42-day phase of the agreement have come home, along with five Thai hostages. Hundreds of Palestinian terror convicts have been released under the deal.

Work on the potential second stage of the multi-phase agreement, aimed at securing the release of around 60 male hostages and the withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza, has begun and an Israeli negotiating team was expected to fly on Saturday to Doha, Hebrew media reported on Friday.

In total, Israel has said it would release up to 1,904 Palestinian prisoners — including 737 serving life terms for dozens of murders — in return for the 33 Israeli hostages during the deal’s 1st phase. …

Seventy-three of the 251 hostages abducted by Hamas on October 7 remain in Gaza, including the bodies of at least 34 confirmed dead by the IDF. Hamas is also holding two Israeli civilians who entered the Strip in 2014 and 2015, as well as the body of an IDF soldier who was killed in 2014.

Published at NYPost .com. Reprinted here for educational purposes only. May not be reproduced on other websites without permission.

The 17 hostages who are supposed to be released in phase one of the Gaza ceasefire deal as of February 8, 2025 after the first five rounds saw 16 captives freed, including the 3 on Saturday. Row 1 (L-R): Ariel Bibas, Kfir Bibas, Shiri Bibas, Sasha Trufanov; Row 2: Shlomo Mansour, Ohad Yahalomi, Oded Lifshitz, Tsahi Idan; Row 3: Hisham al-Sayed, Sagui Dekel-Chen, Yair Horn, Omer Wenkert; Row 4: Itzik Elgarat, Eliya Cohen, Avera Mengistu, Tal Shoham, Omer Shem-Tov.


Questions

NOTE: Read the "Background" and watch the videos under "Resources" before answering the questions.

1. List the names and ages of the 3 hostages released by the Hamas terrorists on Saturday.

2. a) What horrific news did Eli Sharabi receive upon being reunited with his family?
b) What terrible news did Or Levy receive?

3. Why do many say the three men look like Holocaust survivors?

4. What clothing did Hamas give the hostages to wear upon their release?

5. What did the terrorists force the three hostages to do before being handed over to the Red Cross?

6. a) How many hostages were taken captive by Hamas terrorists and dragged from Israel into Gaza? When did the attack occur?
b) How many hostages are still in Gaza, over a year later?

7. a) Watch the videos under "Resources" below. Why do you think world leaders and the United Nations have not condemned the Hamas terrorists and called for the immediate release of the remaining hostages?
b) Ask a parent the same question.


Background

Eli Sharabi, 52, was kidnapped from Kibbutz Be’eri when Hamas terrorists rampaged through southern Israel on October 7, 2023. His wife Lianne and their daughters, Noiya, 16, and Yahel, 13, all dual British-Israeli citizens, were murdered in their home’s safe room, and he and his brother Yossi were taken captive.

Eli's brother Yossi Sharabi has since been confirmed dead and Hamas is holding his body. The IDF has said he was likely killed as a result of an Israeli military strike.

Or Levy, 34, was kidnapped from the Supernova rave near Kibbutz Re’im on October 7.

He and his wife Eynav arrived at the festival just before the deadly Hamas onslaught began. They headed for their car when the rockets started, then sought refuge in a roadside bomb shelter.

Several days later, the IDF informed the family that Eynav had been killed and her body had been found in the shelter and that Or had been taken captive.

Since then, the couple’s now three-year-old son Almog has been raised by his grandparents.

He had been told for the past 16 months that his father was missing and being searched for — Levy’s brother Michael wrote on Facebook on Friday: “Mogi, we found your dad.”

Levy’s mother Geula, who met him at Re’im, said ahead of the release that it was not clear if he knew that his wife Eynav was killed on October 7, 2023.

“We don’t know if Or knows that his wife was murdered, but from what we have heard the terrorists very much enjoyed telling the hostages that their loved ones had been killed and causing them pain and suffering,” she told Army Radio.

Dual Israeli-German national Ohad Ben Ami was kidnapped from Be’eri. His wife Raz Ben Ami was also abducted, and released as part of a week-long ceasefire in November 2023. Their daughters campaigned hard for their freedom.

On October 7, 2023, one of the first images to emerge from Gaza of a hostage taken there was of Ben Ami being dragged through a street. (from the Times of Israel article above)

The hostages: