The British family of an Israeli hostage freed from Gaza on Saturday have described their “bittersweet” emotions, expressing joy and relief at his release but concern over his “sunken” appearance.
Eli Sharabi, 52, was released from Gaza on Saturday, along with two other hostages, in exchange for 183 Palestinians held in Israeli prisons as part of the ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas.
Sharabi’s brother-in-law, Stephen Brisley, who lives in Bridgend, Wales, told the Guardian that he was feeling a “kaleidoscope of emotions” after Sharabi’s release.
Brisley described his joy and relief at seeing Sharabi alive “because, up until yesterday afternoon, we didn’t even know whether he was alive or dead”. He said this was “very much tempered by the distress of seeing the state that he’s in”.
“You can see the clothes are hanging off of him. You can see his face was gone. The spark and the light has gone from his eyes. His cheeks are sunken.
“It’s a bittersweet day because we don’t know, other than the fact that he’s alive, exactly what state he’s in physically and mentally,” said Brisley. “But it’s the moment we’ve been we’ve been waiting for. I’m just trying to focus on the joy of that and leave the more distressing elements for another time while we help him to recover.”
Sharabi was at his home in Be’eri kibbutz with his British-born wife and their two teenage daughters when Hamas militants entered it on 7 October 2023.
The armed men shot their dog before locking Lianne, Sharabi’s wife, and their two daughters in their safe room and setting it on fire. Their bodies were later identified and Sharabi was taken to Gaza along with his brother, Yossi.
“His family is everything to him,” said Brisley. “I think that’s going to be the biggest obstacle for him, going back to find that the family he’s built his whole life around is no longer there. I don’t know how he recovers from that.”
The Israeli military said early last year that Yossi was killed in Gaza. “We don’t know whether Eli knows that Yossi is dead,” Brisley said.
Brisley said Sharabi was a “very clever, very funny man” before being taken hostage. “Eli is a Man United fan unfortunately. I’m a Liverpool fan, so we have a lot of football-related ribbing and banter. He’s all about making sure that everybody has got everything that they need and looking after everyone,” said Brisley.
Brisley is flying out to Israel on Sunday. “Whether or not I see him remains to be seen, because my focus is doing whatever Eli needs to start his recovery journey,” he said. “I’m conscious that I’m going to be a reminder of Lianne and the girls and that might be a trigger for him.
“When he’s ready to see me, I want to put my arms around him and welcome him back and let him know that the British side of his family are still here for him. Lianne and the girls’ deaths, that was the end of three lives. It wasn’t the end of our relationship with Eli and the Israeli side of our family.”
