Freed hostage Eli Sharabi to address UN Security Council on Thursday
Freed Israeli hostage Eli Sharabi is scheduled to brief the U.N. Security Council on Thursday morning.
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Caption: Hamas’s Al-Qassam Brigades parade Israeli hostage Eli Sharabi before handing them over to the International Red Cross, Feb 8, 2025. Photo by Abed Rahim Khatib/Flash90.
The Israeli mission to the United Nations told JNS that Sharabi will take part in an yet- unpublished open meeting on March 20 at 10 a.m. Sharabi will become the second freed hostage to address the council, following Noa Argamani’s appearance in the chamber in February.
Sharabi, 53, lost more than 66 pounds in captivity in the Gaza Strip and weighed just 97 pounds upon his release on Feb. 8. His wife, Lianne, and their daughters, Yahel and Noiya, were murdered in Kibbutz Be’eri during the Hamas-led terrorist attacks in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.His older brother Yossi Sharabi, who was also taken hostage that day, was killed in captivity. His death was announced by officials in mid-January.
Eli Sharabi was part of a freed hostages delegation to Washington that met with U.S. President Donald Trump in the White House on March 5. His younger brother, Sharon Sharabi, said that the invitation came about after Trump watched an interview Eli gave on Israeli television during which he recounted the horrific conditions he suffered in Gaza.
Sharabi met days later with Keir Starmer, prime minister of the United Kingdom, at 10 Downing Street in London. Sharabi’s wife and two daughters were British nationals.
The U.N. Security Council met on Tuesday morning to discuss the humanitarian situation in Gaza. It plans tol convene again on Friday for its monthly scheduled meeting on the Israeli-Palestinian file.
Eli Sharabi is a special man. What he has suffered, what he has lost, and the account he has given of the way he behaved while the hostage of Hamas, the discipline and dignity by which he resolved to live, in such direct and contrasting comparison to the barbarity of his jailers, is inspirational. Awe-inspiring, in fact. I can only hope the UN has the respect to listen well.