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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
World
Emine Sinmaz

Israeli hostage vowed to return to his family – only to find they had been killed

Eli Sharabi, wearing a brown sweatshirt and looking thin and pale, is escorted by two Hamas fighters carrying machine guns
Eli Sharabi was handed over by Hamas fighters to the Red Cross in Deir al-Balah on 8 February. Photograph: Abdel Kareem Hana/AP

“Don’t worry, I will be back. Whatever they do to me, I will be back,” was one of the last things Eli Sharabi told his wife and daughters before he was abducted by Hamas. And when the 52-year-old was freed after 16 months in captivity in Gaza, he was desperate to know if his family were waiting for him.

It was only then that he was told that his British wife, Lianne Sharabi, 48, and daughters Noiya, 16, and Yahel, 13, had been murdered at their home in the Be’eri kibbutz in Israel on 7 October 2023.

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