VOICES

Eli Sharabi

Hostage Survivor

Eli Sharabi, an Israeli civilian kidnapped by Hamas during the Oct. 7 attacks, has become one of the most powerful human faces of the hostage crisis across the world. While held in Gaza, advocacy on Sharabi’s behalf—led by his family and supporters—helped keep sustained international attention on the hostages as individuals rather than statistics. After his release during a hostage exchange, Sharabi’s remarkable story which he has courageously shared with thousands underscored both the brutality of Hamas’s actions and the long-term human cost borne by Israeli families. His experience, widely cited in discussions of the war’s moral stakes, reinforced for Jewish and non-Jewish audiences alike what was at risk beyond military or diplomatic outcomes: the lives of ordinary people caught in extraordinary violence.