Freed Israeli hostages did not know about the deaths of their relatives

Freed Israeli hostages did not know about the deaths of their relatives

The suffering did not end for the Israeli hostages released on Saturday as Hamas fighters paraded their fresh and emaciated figures on a stage in Gaza before handing them over to the Red Cross. Only later, when the freed men were back on home soil, did two of them learn that some of the loved ones they hoped to see again were already dead.

Painful revelations upon return

During their staged presentation by Hamas, one of the Israeli hostages, Eli Sharabi, expressed to the crowd - clearly under pressure - a desire to see his wife Lianne and his daughters Noiya and Yahel again. All three were killed during Hamas' attack on Kibbutz Be'eri on October 7. However, it was only upon his return to Israel that Sharabi learned of her fate, the Forum for Hostages and Missing Families reported.

“He didn’t know,”

However, Sharabi appeared to know that his brother Yossi - who was also taken hostage by Hamas - had since died in Gaza, where the Israeli military says his body still lies. Both men and their families lived on the kibbutz where more than 100 people died during the Oct. 7 attacks. Sharabi's niece had previously spoken about the close relationship between the two families.

Uncertain fate and family reunion

Another hostage released on Saturday, Or Levy, had feared that his wife Einav had died, but did not know for sure whether this was the case due to lack of access to news during his captivity, according to his mother, Geula Levy. Levy, 34, was kidnapped on October 7 during the Nova music festival. His wife Einav was killed during the attack.

Levy asked about his wife when he was at Sheba Hospital after his release. "He didn't know. He suspected and asked, and we told him," she told Israel's Kann 11 News. At the hospital, Levy reunited with his son, who was only 2 years old when his father was kidnapped. Father and son came together “as if nothing had happened,” reported Geula Levy.

Demands for immediate action

Sharabi, Levy and Ohad Ben Ami's experiences in captivity and the realization that they knew nothing about the fate of their loved ones have already mobilized a family of hostages to demand more action. On Saturday, the parents of Hersh Goldberg-Polin, an Israeli-American murdered by Hamas militants in Gaza in August, urged US President Donald Trump and his Middle East special envoy Steve Witkoff to work for the release of all hostages held in Gaza "this week" and to reject the multi-tiered approach to the ceasefire agreement reached by Israel and Hamas.

“Our appeal to you (Trump and Witkoff) is now that you have done the hard part of moving and starting an agreement, let us not think about phase one and phase two.”

Jon Goldberg-Polin demanded in a video: "Release all 76 hostages this week. End the war. Who benefits from delaying it for so long? Not the people of this region. Let's get it done now."

A total of 33 Israeli hostages are to be released under the first phase of the ceasefire agreement, which came into force on January 19 and is expected to last six weeks. Following the release of the three hostages on Saturday, Hamas and its allies are still holding a total of 73 people who were kidnapped from Israel on October 7, 2023, as well as an additional three who were previously held. Negotiations on the second and third phases are said to have not yet begun in earnest.

Hersh Goldberg-Polin was kidnapped at the same time as Levy. Both had tried to hide in a bunker before being captured and taken to Gaza in the back of a pickup truck. The Goldberg-Polins reported that their call was motivated by concerns about the condition of the three hostages released Saturday, that Or (Levy) had no idea what had happened to Hersh and that Eli (Sharabi) did not know that his daughters and wife had been murdered.

They remained in close contact with Levi's family and noted that one of Levi's first questions upon his release was how Hersh was doing, completely unaware that he had been killed. "He assumed he had been released a long time ago," said Rachel Goldberg-Polin.