The British family of released hostage Eli Sharabi have spoken of their relief that he has been freed, but say he looks “incredibly frail” and “the spark was gone from his eyes”.
Mr Sharabi was taken captive from Kibbutz Beeri by the militants during the October 7 2023 Hamas attack.
His Bristol-born wife Lianne and teenage daughters Noiya and Yahel were killed by militants while hiding in their safe room, and his brother, Yossi Sharabi, who lived next door, was killed in captivity.
On Saturday Mr Sharabi, 52, and fellow captives Ohad Ben Ami, 56, and Or Levy, 34, appeared thin as they were paraded by Hamas gunmen on a stage in Deir al-Balah in central Gaza.
His brother-in-law Steve Brisley, 48, of Bridgend, Wales, told the PA news agency: “It has been a day of relief, all the way through joy, all the way through to heartache. Really, it’s a real sort of the real spectrum emotions.
“Up until his name came out on the list yesterday afternoon, we still didn’t know whether he was alive or dead.”
The hostages’ emaciated condition and the stage-managed ceremony, a departure from previous hostage releases where the captives were not made to speak, sparked outrage in Israel.
After watching the televised ceremony from his home in Britain, Mr Brisley said he did not recognise Mr Sharabi at first, as he looked “incredibly frail, incredibly pale and it’s clear that he’s not seen daylight for some time”.
He added: “It really struck me how it’s clear how much weight he’s lost. I mean, the baggy clothes were hanging off of him. You could see his wrists were bony.
“The thing that really struck me was his face. It’s drawn and it’s gaunt, the dark rings around his eyes.
“Eli has always been a very happy, smiley man and he smiles with his whole face and with his eyes.
“It was the spark was gone from his eyes, that’s the thing I think I found most distressing to see.
“He looked confused and and disorientated.
“It’s not the Eli that that I know and love. Obviously, the impact of 491 days was written all over his face.”
The three Israeli men were released in the fifth round of exchanges of hostages for Palestinians jailed by Israel.
They were forced to give statements before waving and being taken away by the Red Cross.
Mr Sharabi and Mr Ben Ami were both seized from kibbutz Beeri, and Mr Levy was captured at the Nova music festival.
Referring to survivors of Second World War prisoner camps, Mr Brisley said: “I think the comparison is clear there, with the bony, gaunt faces.
“It’s haunting to see him like that. I can only imagine what the last 15 months has done to him to make him look like that.
“I think it’s the light that’s gone from his eyes, that’s the most concerning thing, because physical pain and physical problems can be repaired much more easily than the mental ones.”
It is not known if Mr Sharabi is aware that his loved ones were killed but “we know that some of the terrorists did kill family members in front of the people they’ve taken hostage, purely for the psychological terror of it,” Mr Brisley said.
He added: “I do wonder if he hasn’t known about it all this time, is the prospect of being reunited with Lianne and the girls been what’s kept him going and nourished him for 491 days?
“What is it going to do to the man when he finds out that they’re gone, because family is everything to him.
“He is a family man and everything he does, everything he is, is for his family. The joy he may have felt at walking to freedom will be completely shattered by the news that his family has gone.”
As with other released hostages, Mr Sharabi’s relatives expect he will stay at a medical centre in central Tel Aviv, where the hospitals have essentially set up special wings for the former hostages so they and their families can have some privacy.
A multi-disciplinary team of social workers, psychiatrists, dietitians and specialist clinicians are on hand to help with the physical and mental recovery.
A statement from the Sharabi and Brisley families, and their lawyers, condemned hostage-taking as “a war crime” and demanded that the other captives be immediately released.
It said: “The disgusting spectacle of gaunt and terrified hostages being forced to ‘thank’ their captors surrounded by the armed militants who are responsible for their and their families’ torture over 16 months should be a wake-up call for the world.”
Sharone Lifschitz, whose 84-year-old father, Oded Lifshitz, was taken from Kibbutz Nir on October 7, said: “This is hell. The hostages must come home now.”
After seeing the condition of the hostages and the stage-managed ceremony, the office of Israel’s Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said “we will not accept the shocking scenes” that played out.
The statement did not lay out punitive measures.
Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid said the “difficult scenes” were reason to extend the truce with Hamas and bring home the dozens of remaining hostages.
In response, Hamas’s military wing, the Qassam Brigades, claimed it had “made efforts to preserve their lives despite the (Israeli) bombardment”.
