…After he shared stomach-churning account of Hamas torture
President Donald Trump has invited a freed Israeli hostage to the White House after being shocked by his stomach-turning interview following 16 months in Hamas captivity.
Eli Sharabi, who was released last month after being held by the Palestinian terror group since October 2023, is expected to meet with Trump on Tuesday, his brother Sharon told Israeli newspaper Haaretz on Sunday.
Trump extended the invitation to Sharabi and other hostages after being shown clips of his harrowing interview describing his torture and starvation.
Sharabi described being chained, beaten and starved by his captors, with treatment worsening every time Israel’s leaders announced the deterioration of prison conditions for captured Hamas fighters, in an interview with Israel’s Channel 12.
“Excerpts from the programme were shown to Trump with English subtitles, and he was shocked,” Sharabi’s brother told the Israeli outlet.
The president compared Sharabi and the two other former hostages to “Holocaust survivors” as the trio were freed by Hamas last month.
Trump’s invitation “is inspiring. It warms the heart that Trump understands the urgency. I hope the meeting will help to bring the hostage[s] home,” Sharon said.
Sharabi and the other hostages will travel to Washington, DC, on the plane of Miriam Adelson, an Israeli-American and major Trump donor, his brother said.
“Monday morning, we’re boarding the plane with Mrs. Adelson’s kind help. We’ll arrive to see Trump and explain to him up close the urgency of continuing the first stage or beginning the second stage [of the cease-fire] — it doesn’t really matter,” Sharon said, referencing the shaky deal between Israel and Hamas.
Sharabi and the other hostages will travel to DC on the plane of Miriam Adelson, an Israeli-American and major Trump donor, his brother said. AP
Sharabi’s captors shot his dog and killed his wife and teenage daughters before kidnapping him along with his brother Yossi from his home in Kibbutz Be’eri on October 7, his family said.
He only discovered that his wife, Lianne, and their daughters, Noiya and Yahel, had been murdered after his release.
Yossi was also killed last year in Gaza after Israel’s army shelled a building close to where he was being held, the Israeli military said.
Sharabi lost 40% of his body weight while in captivity, the Times of Israel reported.
He was released as part of the first phase of a cease-fire deal that saw 29 other hostages and the bodies of eight Israelis returned to the country.
A total of 59 hostages are still being held by terror groups in the Gaza Strip.
