October 7 · Personal story
Eli Sharabi
Abducted
October 7, 2023
Abduction location
Kibbutz Be’eri
Current outcome
Released alive · February 8, 2025
Released alive after 491 days in captivity.
01
Life before
Eli built his adult life in Kibbutz Be’eri, where he lived with his British-born wife, Lianne, and their daughters Noiya and Yahel. After decades in the community, ordinary family routines became the details he later missed most: Friday-night dinners, driving the girls to friends across the regional council, listening to music and talking about their week. He described those small journeys as a shared part of their family life.
02
Abduction
On October 7, 2023, Eli was abducted from his home in Kibbutz Be’eri. His wife Lianne and daughters Noiya and Yahel were killed at home that day. Eli was taken away without knowing their fate. He entered captivity believing he might return to them, and continued to hope he would see them when he came home.
03
Captivity
Eli spent 491 days in captivity. In an Associated Press interview published in October 2025, he recalled being held initially in an apartment with a Thai agricultural worker, with whom communication was difficult. After the November 2023 ceasefire ended, he was moved underground and held with three younger Israelis abducted from the music festival. He became a father figure to them and helped devise exercises they could do despite chains on their legs. Each day, they tried to recall something good: a little extra food or a day without an especially violent guard. They prayed together, and on Friday evenings used a cup of water for the Sabbath blessing normally recited over wine. In his memoir and interviews, Eli also described hunger, darkness and psychological pressure from captors who told him that his family had forgotten him. He continued to hope for reunion, unaware that Lianne, Noiya and Yahel had been killed.
04
Return
Eli was released alive on February 8, 2025, after 491 days. When he returned to Israel, he expected to see Lianne and his daughters. His relatives told him that they had been murdered on October 7. He also learned that his brother Yossi, abducted separately from Be’eri, had died in captivity. His homecoming reunited him with surviving relatives, while bringing news of losses he had not known during the months in Gaza.
05
Aftermath
Eli wrote Hostage to record what happened during his 491 days in captivity. In interviews in 2026, he spoke about grief for his wife and daughters and the everyday family moments he missed: Friday dinners, music in the car and conversations about school and friends. He also described forming a new routine away from Be’eri after decades in the community. The memoir and later conversations put his public advocacy beside his private loss. Eli has said he wants readers to understand captivity through a person’s lived account.