When Hamas terrorists kidnapped Eli Sharabi from a kibbutz on Oct. 7th, 2023—the day Hamas slaughtered 1200 men, women, and children—he experienced a moment of gratitude after realizing that his captors wanted him, but not his wife and daughters. Shortly thereafter, after his abductors shielded him from another terrorist who kicked him in the ribs, it dawned on Sharabi that they wanted to take him alive, as a hostage.
While that may have provided a sense of relief, the Tel Aviv-born son of Yemenite and Moroccan parents had no idea of the horrors that the next 491 days spent in captivity in the Gaza Strip.
Sharabi told the harrowing, sadistic story of his abduction in Hostage, the first book published by a survivor of the October 7th Hamas kidnappings. He depicts the brutality of his experience in a matter-of-fact manner. There's little anger in his words, but it's impossible to read this book without feeling that emotion on the author's behalf.
One of Sharabi’s first thoughts upon learning he was going to be held hostage in Gaza was his dread of one of Hamas’ many underground tunnels—a “bottomless underworld with no light, no air, no return.” That dank subterranean warren was his destiny, but not before he’s held for weeks in a private home. There, his two captors force him and his fellow hostages to shave every hair on their body while they, along with the man of the household, look on. It then comes as a surprise when the author writes about spending pleasant time with the family members in that household and the two Hamas operatives guarding him.
They play cards, talk about their lives, and bond in unexpected ways, which the author describes as “a natural human dynamic that's hard to resist” in such circumstances, rather than Stockholm Syndrome. Sharabi also sees forming a connection with people in whose eyes he sees evil as a strategic choice, as his instincts tell him that's the best path to minimizing the pain of his imprisonment.
On day 51 of his captivity, the prisoners are moved to a tunnel, the entrance to which was in a trap door on the floor of a mosque. The author describes the initial stretch of time beneath the earth as not living up to his nightmarish expectations. The simple food was sufficient and arrived regularly.
Sharabi starts to envision himself getting through the ordeal, describing himself, at 51, acting as an elder statesman to his younger fellow captives whose emotions often overwhelm them, threatening group morale. They also have difficulty in dealing with day-to-day realities such as fairly dividing the food that's delivered to them in one large portion. Sharabi intervenes to fix such problems.
But things would get much worse and the author's resolve would face a test when they're taken to another tunnel that’s in much worse shape than the first one. The kitchen (that has no gas for cooking), bathroom, and sleeping quarters are smaller, and a mess. There's no electricity, no running water. Their captors look angry. A gas stove arrives, but cooking supplies that arrive are scarce, and the captors take most of them, leaving their captives to go hungry. Still, two of their captors who’ve remained friendly to the Israelis sneak in occasional treats to them.
There's almost no toothpaste, showers, or toilet paper. The hostages’ hygiene bottoms out. Their bodies and clothes become smelly. As the author puts it, “I never knew the human body could collect so much filth.” Sewage overflows into their living area, and worm colonies start to form around the prisoners. Adding to the author's misery, one of the captors takes out his frustrations by giving him a beating.
Inevitably, as the hostages see themselves facing death, they start arguing with each other over the allocations of their shrinking resources. The infighting drains them of what little energy they still have.
In the most surreal section of the book, the hostages are walking the streets of Gaza as the Hamas soldiers move them back to another tunnel. In their 15 minutes of sunlight and open space, the streets are full of people, stores are open, and Sharabi can smell food from nearby restaurants. There's no sense that war’s still raging. Kids are walking around with iPhones. People are laughing. And then the hostages are forced back in the hole, with no idea if, or when, they'll see regular life unfold like this again.
Conditions are, back in the original tunnel, unthinkable. The captors use psychological torture on the hostages, making them wait for the toilet and forcing them to recite verses of the Quran. But it’s bad for the kidnappers too. Sharabi hears them crying at night.
Finally, the hostages learn that their release is pending, but their freedom would involve a drawn-out process. As they're moved around, Sharabi learns that his brother has been killed—by the IDF, his captors claim. The group has to appear on camera, answering specific questions with set answers—e.g. “Netanyahu likes to kill babies in Gaza.”
The author allows himself to cry once he's in the armored Red Cross rescue vehicle and a woman from New Zealand tells him he's safe. At the IDF point, where the Israeli flag is flying, a female officer approaches. He asks her to bring him his wife and daughters. She tells him his mother will tell him. He learns that Hamas had slaughtered them at the kibbutz, but says he didn't cry or fall apart. Part of him had already processed the grief, even as he clung to the belief that his family was still alive.
Sharabi avoids turning his memoir into a political tract or an outlet for his rage. Without self-pity, he recounts the cruelty of his captivity in documentary fashion, allowing the events to speak for themselves.
Hostage is a hard, but riveting, read. It's a detailed account of the will to survive in the face of dehumanization. Sharabi writes not only about his suffering, but also the suffering of his fellow hostages, and even some of his captors. His fluency in Arabic allowed him to report on the conversations of these captors, who he makes an effort to portray as individuals rather than caricatures, to the extent that it was possible.
The events that unfolded after October 7th were nightmarish for both the Israeli hostages and the people of Gaza. Emotions have clouded the reporting on what has transpired, but Hostage will live on as an eloquent testimony to the inhumanity of one aspect of this conflict.