‘It was very tough but I love life’

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‘It was very tough but I love life’

2025-10-03 05:30:17

Lucy ManningPrivate correspondent

Watch: “I cried for a few minutes,” Elie Charraby Lucy Manning tells, and [then] I said, it will not help restore Lyan, Noya and Wahil.

A precedent Israeli hostage, who killed the wife and children of British Israelis by Hamas in the October 7 attacks, says it is “very concerned” from the last peace plan to end the fighting between Israel and Hamas.

In a rare interview, Elie Charraby, who became one of the most prominent people who took when the militants stormed Israel two years ago, said the lives of the 20 hostages were at risk due to the ongoing Israel war.

US President Donald Trump called for “ending the job” using his influence to ensure that they are and 28 other hostages who believed they died.

His former kidnappers, Hamas, told the signing of the deal “their people … the Middle East … the war is wrong and the terrible of both sides.”

“We have to continue hope,” he added.

A 20 -point peace planTrump and Prime Minister in Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, agrees to it, proposes an immediate end to fighting and release within 72 hours of all hostages, compared to hundreds of Palestinian detainees and prisoners in Israel. Hamas officials indicated that they would refuse to do so.

Hamas is still holding the body of Mr. Charrabi Yossi, who is desperate to return home to bury him, as well as his friend, Alon Olon, who is 24 years old, with whom he was reservation in the depths of Gaza’s depths.

After spending 491 days in captivity, Mr. Sharbi discovered only on the day of his release in February 2025 that his wife, Lian, was no longer his wife, and the 16-year-old daughters, alive-was shot after he was transferred.

When they were not there to receive upon his return to Israel, he collapsed because he realized “the worst scenario happened.”

About 1,200 people were killed in Israel on October 7 when Hamas gunmen stormed the border, while 251 others were transported.

As the second anniversary approaches, Mr. Charrabi BBC told his ordeal and what he motivated to rebuild his life.

In the center of Israel at sunset, Mr. Sharrabi, 53, stands, looking at the calm Mediterranean. While breathing in the sea air, this freedom felt far away from this year as he fought hunger, abuse and violence.

On the morning of October 7, the Sharabi family hidden for hours in its safe room in Kibbutz Be’eri, an Israeli society that includes about 1,000 people near the Gaza border. Almost one in every 10 people in Kibbutz Be’eri were killed or took hostages on that day.

While Hamas gunmen exploded and the bullets retreated, he threw Lian, born in Bristol, England, themselves on their daughters.

He says they told the gunmen that Layan and Noya and all of them have British passports, but they took him out of his home.

“I understood that it was the moment when it was kidnapped. So, I turned my head towards my girl and shouted” I will return ” – and that was the last time I saw it.”

Mr. Sharabi, former director of Kibbutz, described how he was first transferred to a mosque in Gaza, where he was attacked by Palestinian civilians.

Bloomberg is seen via Getty Images stove, dilapidated walls and pieces of rubble in a black burning room in a house in Kibbutz Be'eri in southern Israel.Bloomberg via Getti Imas

The remains of a burning house – not the Al -Sharabi family home – after Hamas attacks on Kibbutz Be’eri on October 7, 2023

“My eyes were blindfold, but I was hearing men and children and started putting me with their bare hands, and children’s shoes started hitting me when I was on the ground.”

For every 16 months of families, he says he was associated – first with his wrist ropes and ankle, then with iron chains. Pain caused him to go out.

But he says he was determined to stay, even when he struggled to breathe for a month after saying that his kidnappers hit him and broke his ribs.

He recalls, “It is frightening. It is insulting when freedom is taken from you.”

“You have to ask for permission to breathe, talk, and go to the toilet. You need to beg for food, water and everything. But I promised my daughters that I will return to them, and they love life.

“So I said, I don’t care what will happen. I will return to my family with hands or hands, with legs or legs. I really believe, from the first moment, I will survive.”

Mr. Sharabi says he was transferred to the Hamas tunnel network, where he describes the most famous spending of three other hostages in narrow and inhuman circumstances with a little sewage or food.

In the past six months, he says they have only one meal a day, which is often one and a half piece of beta bread. He says: “Hunger was the worst thing … You eat crumbs on the carpet.”

After losing more than four stone (25 kg), there was a global shock in Pictures of his weak and meager condition When he was finally released.

He was told by his brochure from his imminent release a week before he occurred. He was also told that his brother had been hated and died in Gaza, and perhaps in an Israeli attack. As this freedom approached, he dreamed of moving with Layan, Noya and Wahil, to England, near his wife’s relatives.

AFP via Getty Images Hamas fighters of militants accompanying a thin Israeli hostage Elie Charraby on stage before being launched to Israel. The fighters have masked faces, in the military uniform and carry their rifles in the air. Mr. Sharabi carries a piece of paper and wears a brown shirt.AFP via Getty Images

Hamas fighters presented Mr. Sharbi on stage before delivering it

When the day came, Hamas shown it on the stage at a television ceremony, surrounded by dozens of militants. He says he was performed to say at this ceremony how much he was looking to see his family – but those who watch know something he did not do.

He soon gave the joy of the devastating reality, as it was welcomed to Israel.

“The social worker approached me and said:” Your mother and sister are waiting for you. “I told her,” Please bring me Lyan and my daughters. “

“I cried for a few minutes, and I said to myself,” I can cry all day, but this will not help me to return Lyan, Noya and Yahil. And I need my family with me.

Reuters Elie Charrabi, the former Israeli hostage issued by Hamas in Gaza last month, holds a picture of his wife and two daughters, killed by Hamas, as he was addressing a meeting of the United Nations Security Council Reuters

Mr. Sharabi holds a picture of him with his wife Lyan, the daughters of Noya and Wahil

He slides the former hostage, remembering the first phone call he made as a free man for his wife’s father in Wales, to exchange his sadness. It was “very emotional” but “important”. His family’s funerals were held in Israel while he was still in the families of Hamas, who did not know their fate.

Mr. Sharbi showed great flexibility in the months that followed. He carried out a campaign around the world for hostages – until he met with President Trump in the Oval Office. “I ask him to finish the job and help all others to return as well,” he pleads.

He feels that Trump had an effective role in helping to secure his release in a hostage deal in February, echoing the audio pressure of the US President in recent months on Israel and Hamas to find peace.

In response to a question from the BBC if he was concerned that the new peace plan may not happen, Mr. Sharbi answered, speaking on Wednesday, saying: “Of course – very worried. Two days ago we were sure that it was very close, but it does not look close, unfortunately. Maybe I don’t know some things, but I will be surprised.”

He said that the proposal was “very good news” and people should “not lose our belief that one day there will be an agreement.”

He says he knows very well what shepherds are still the hostages that he is still suffering from, as Hamas refuses to release them and Israel expanded its military campaign. So far, more than 66,000 people have been killed in Israeli attacks in Gaza, according to the Hamas Ministry of Health in the region.

“Everyone knows when the war continues that it exposes the hostages of the hostages in danger. This is not a secret. For me, when I want all the 48 hostages today, tomorrow, I just want to stop … the war is horrific, and people suffer from war, but we cannot forget who started that, who is the bad man and who is the good man.”

He wrote a book called hostage to ensure that people realize his ordeal. Lyan, a thirsty reader, used to tell him that he did not read enough – so he believed that she would be proud.

Although it is difficult to continue without his family, he does not need memorial days to remember.

“Yossi, Lyan, Noya, and I will come to me every day in my life, every moment. But I am completely sure that they will be next to my life, and not instead of my life.

“I do not have a concession to stay in bed and cry all day after my family and friends fought for 500 days. It is unacceptable to me to do so.”

In Israel, strangers are approaching and telling him that he is a hero. His time has strengthened his intention to live despite the loss of his family.

“It was very difficult, but I really love life … I am trying to be positive. I am working on it.”

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