Eli Sharabi, a former Israeli hostage held by Hamas in Gaza, is being featured on the cover of TIME magazine that hits newsstands on Oct. 27. An excerpt of his memoir, documenting his survival of 491 days of captivity in the Strip, was published online on Oct. 1.
“As they dragged me out, I called out to my girls: I’ll be back. I had to believe that. But that was the last time I ever saw them. I didn’t know I should have said goodbye, forever,” said the 53-year-old Be’eri resident.
He was kidnapped from the kibbutz during the Oct. 7, 2023 mass invasion of the northwestern Negev and released as part of a ceasefire deal on Feb. 8, 2025.
During the massacre, his wife, Lian, and their daughters Noya, 16, and Yahel, 13, were murdered. His brother Yossi was also kidnapped and later murdered.
The English-language version of his memoir, Hostage—the first memoir published by a released hostage—will be published in the United States on the two-year anniversary of the attack. It was first published in Israel in May.
Israel’s Foreign Ministry on Friday retweeted Time‘s X post with Sharabi on the cover, reminding readers that “48 hostages are still held by Palestinian Hamas. Let them go NOW!”
“As they dragged me out, I called out to my girls: I’ll be back. I had to believe that. But that was the last time I ever saw them. I didn’t know I should have said goodbye, forever.”
— Israel Foreign Ministry (@IsraelMFA) October 3, 2025
Eli Sharabi survived 491 days in Hamas captivity.
48 hostages are still held by Palestinian… https://t.co/HMj7R00FZH
‘You’re the only one left’
Daniela Gilboa, an Israel Defense Forces observer at Nahal Oz, recounted her Oct. 7 kidnapping in an interview published by Kan News on Sunday.
She was released from Hamas captivity in January after 477 days.
Here is an excerpt from her description of the moments of her kidnapping:
“Then they seat me, and Karina is seated next to me, and then I have to just look at the wonderful spectacle in quotation marks before my eyes, for three hours, which is simply all the bodies of all my friends.
“I thought I was dead, and suddenly, when you discover that you’re alive, that you survived whatever it is, there are a million terrorists here, and you’re sitting and looking at the bodies of your friends.”
Gilboa said that she managed to exchange a few words with Karina Ariev, who was kidnapped and released with her as part of the second hostage deal. “She tells me, ‘I feel like I’m going to die, too.’ And I told her, ‘Karina,’ literally in a whisper, ‘You’re not going, too; you’re staying with me. You’re the only one left, stay with me.’
“It really comforted me in some way that she was here with me, but she was also very wounded. I also don’t really remember my feelings when I was physically sitting there. I just don’t understand what’s going on. It’s as if they ripped me out of the situation where a moment ago we were in a hospital, all together, and just sat me down and showed me my biggest nightmare before my eyes.”
