“It was very difficult but I love life”

A former Israeli hostage, whose wife and children were killed by Hamas in the attacks on October 7, said he “tried to be positive” after his release earlier this year.

In a rare interview, Eli Shabi, who became one of the highest profiles of those taken when the gunners invaded Israel two years ago, thought about the discovery after his release was killed.

He also expressed concern that the last peaceful plan to end the struggle between Israel and Hamas could collapse and say that the life of the other 20 living hostages was at risk of the ongoing war in Israel.

D -Chabi told his former abductors Hamas to sign the deal for “their people … and the Middle East … The war is wrong and terrible for both sides.”

“We have to keep hope that there will be an agreement, he added.

20-point peace planHe agreed by US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu offers an immediate termination of the fight and release within 72 hours of all hostages, in replacement of hundreds of detainees and Palestinian prisoners in Israel. Hamas employees said they would reject it.

Hamas still holds Mr. Shabi’s brother’s body, whom he desperately returns to return home for a funeral, as well as his friend, 24-year-old Alon Oxel, who was kept with him in tunnels deep under Gaza.

After spending 491 days in captivity, Mr Shabi discovered only on the day of his release in February 2025 that his wife Lian and daughters, 16-year-old Noah and 13-year-old Yael, were no longer alive after he was taken away.

When they were not there to greet him on his return to Israel, he fell apart when he realized that “the youngest scenario had happened.”

About 1,200 people in Israel were killed on October 7, when Hamas artillerymen stormed across the border, while 251 others were taken hostage.

As the second anniversary approaches, Shabi told BBC News about his ordeal and what motivates him to restore his life.

In Central Israel, as the sun sets, D -n Shabi, 53 years old, stands and looks at the calm Mediterranean. As he breathes in the sea air, such freedom feels remotely early this year while fighting hunger, abuse and violence.

On October 7, the Sharabi family was hiding for hours in their safe room in Kibbutz Beaeri, an Israeli community of about 1,000 people close to the border of Gaza. Almost one in 10 people in Kibbutz Beaeri were killed or taken hostage that day.

As Hamas’s artillerymen erupted and shot shots, he and Lian, born in Bristol, England, threw themselves at their daughters.

He says they told the artillerymen that Lian, Noah and Yael had British passports, but they pulled him out of his home.

“I realized that this was the moment when I was probably abducted. So, I just turned my head to my girls and called” I will come back ” – and that was the last time I saw them.”

D -Shabi, the former business manager of Kibbutz, described how he was first taken to a mosque in Gaza, where he was attacked by Palestinian civilians.

“My eyes were tied with tied eyes, but I heard men and children, and they started lynched me with their bare hands, and the children’s shoes began to hit me when I was on the ground.”

Almost all of his 16 months of captivity, he says he was tied – first with ropes to the wrists and ankles, then with iron chains. The pain made him retreat.

But he says he was determined to survive, even when he was trying to breathe for a month after saying that his abductors had beat him and broke his ribs.

“It’s scary. Destroying that is humiliating when freedom is taken away from you,” he recalls.

“You have to ask the permission to breathe, to talk, to go to the toilet. You have to ask for food, water, everything. But I promised my girls that I would come back to them and they love life.

“That’s why I said, I’m not interested in what would happen. I’ll go back to my family with my hands or hands, legs or legs. Really, I really believed from the first moment that I would survive this.”

Scharabi says he was taken to the Hamas tunnel network, where he describes spending months with three other hostages in narrow, inhuman conditions with a little sanitary ware or food.

In the last six months, he says that they have only been given one meal a day, which would often be just one and a half pieces of pie pie. “The hunger was the worst thing … you eat the crumbs on the carpet,” he says.

After losing more than four stones (25 kg) in weight, there was shock worldwide from the images of his weak and burned state When he was finally released.

They told him from his captives about his upcoming release a week before it happened. He was also told that his brother had been taken hostage and died in Gaza, probably in an Israeli attack. As this freedom approached, he dreamed of moving with Lian, Noah and Yael, to England, near his wife’s relatives.

When the release day came, Hamas flawed it on the stage at a television ceremony surrounded by dozens of artillerymen. He says he was made to say at this ceremony how much he was glad to see his family – but those who watch knew something that didn’t do it.

The joy of liberation soon gave way to the devastating reality, as it was greeted back to Israel.

“The social worker approached me and said,” Your mother and sister are waiting for you. ” I told her “Please bring me Lian and my daughters.” And she said “Your mother and your sister will tell you.”

“I cried for a few minutes and said” I can cry all day, but it won’t help me bring back Lian, Noah and Yael. And I need my family with me. So, I told the social worker “Come on, let’s go and hug my mother and sister. “

The former hostage’s self -compliance slips away as he remembers the first phone call he made as a free man to his wife’s parents in Wales to share his grief. It was “very emotional” but “important” conversation. His family’s funerals were held in Israel, while he was still captured by Hamas without knowing their fate.

D -Shabi has shown remarkable resistance in the months since then. He has been campaigning around the world for the hostages – he even meets President Trump in the Oval Cabinet. “I ask him to finish the work and help everyone else come back,” he prays.

He believes Trump plays an important role in helping his liberation in a deal with hostages in February, sounding the voice pressure of the US president in recent months on Israel and Hamas to find peace.

Asked by the BBC whether he worried that the new peace plan may not happen, G -H -n -Shabi, speaking on Wednesday, replied: “Of course – she is very worried. Probably two days ago we were sure it was very close, but it doesn’t look so close, unfortunately. I may not know a few things, but I’ll be glad to be surprised.”

He said the proposal was “very good news” and people should not lose their belief that there will be an agreement one day. “

He says he knows too well what horrors the hostages are still experiencing, as Hamas refuses to release them and Israel has expanded his military campaign. So far, over 66,000 people have been killed in Israeli attacks in Gaza, according to the health ministry in the territory.

“Everyone knows when the war continues, it puts the life of the hostages at risk. It’s not a secret. For me, when I want all 48 hostages today, tomorrow, I just want to stop … The war is terrible, people suffer from war, but we can’t forget who has started this and who is the bad person.”

He wrote a book entitled “Hostages” to ensure that people are aware of his ordeal. Lian, an avid reader, told him that he had not read enough – so he thinks he will be proud.

Although it is difficult to continue without his family, he says he does not need memorial days to remember them.

“Jossi, Lian, Noah and Yael are with me every day in my life, every moment. But I am quite sure they will be fine with my life, not instead of my life.

“I do not have the privilege of staying in bed and crying all day after my family and friends fought for me for 500 days. It is unacceptable for me to do it.”

In Israel, strangers approach and tell him he is a hero. His time as a hostage increased his determination to live despite the loss of his family.

“It was very difficult, but I really really love life … I’m trying to be positive. I’m working on it.”

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