{"id":12951,"date":"2025-02-09T11:38:20","date_gmt":"2025-02-09T11:38:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/2025\/02\/09\/freed-israeli-hostages-did-not-know-their-loved-ones-had-died\/"},"modified":"2025-02-09T11:38:20","modified_gmt":"2025-02-09T11:38:20","slug":"freed-israeli-hostages-did-not-know-their-loved-ones-had-died","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/2025\/02\/09\/freed-israeli-hostages-did-not-know-their-loved-ones-had-died\/","title":{"rendered":"Freed Israeli hostages did not know their loved ones had died"},"content":{"rendered":"

For the Israeli hostages freed Saturday, the suffering did not end when Hamas militants paraded their frail and gaunt figures on a stage in Gaza ahead of their release to the Red Cross. <\/p>\n

Only later, after the freed men arrived back on home soil, would two of them discover that some of the loved ones they had hoped to see again were already dead. <\/p>\n

During their stage-managed appearance at the hands of Hamas, one of the Israeli hostages, Eli Sharabi, told the crowd \u2013 clearly speaking under duress \u2013 that he hoped to see his wife Lianne and daughters Noiya and Yahel. <\/p>\n

All three were killed in Kibbutz Be\u2019eri during the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on October 7 \u2013 but it was only on his return to Israel that Sharabi learnt their fate, according to the Hostages and Missing Families Forum. <\/p>\n

Sharabi did appear to know, however, that his brother Yossi \u2013 who was also taken hostage by Hamas \u2013 had subsequently died in Gaza, where according to the Israeli military his body remains. <\/p>\n

Both men and their families had lived at the kibbutz, where more than 100 people were killed during the October 7 attacks. Sharabi\u2019s niece has previously spoken of how close the two families were. <\/p>\n

\u2018He did not know\u2019<\/h2>\n

Another of the hostages released Saturday, Or Levy, had suspected that his wife Einav had died but had not known for sure as he had no access to media during his time in captivity, his mother Geula Levy said. <\/p>\n

Levy, 34, was attending the Nova music festival on October 7 when he was kidnapped. His wife Einav was killed in the attack. <\/p>\n

Levy\u2019s mother said he had asked about his wife while in Sheba Hospital following his release. <\/p>\n

\u201cHe did not know. He assumed, and asked, and we told him,\u201d she told Israel\u2019s public broadcaster Kann 11 News. <\/p>\n

\n
<\/div>\n
\n
Released Israeli hostage Or Levy reunites with son Almog at Sheba Hospital on Saturday.<\/span> <\/div>
Levy Family\/Hostages and Missing Families Forum<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

While in the hospital, Levy reunited with his son, who was only 2 years old when his father was taken hostage. <\/p>\n

The father and son came together \u201cas if nothing had happened,\u201d Geula Levy said. <\/p>\n

Levy\u2019s family issued a statement following his release, celebrating his return while also mourning the death of Einav. <\/p>\n

\u201cHer loss has left an enormous void in all our hearts,\u201d they said. <\/p>\n

\u2018Let\u2019s get it done\u2019<\/h2>\n

The treatment of Sharabi, Levy and Ohad Ben Ami while they were in captivity, and the realization they did not know of their loved ones\u2019 fate, has already galvanized one hostage family to use the moment to call for more action now. <\/p>\n

On Saturday, the parents of Hersh Goldberg-Polin, an Israeli-American murdered by Hamas militants in Gaza in August, urged US President Donald Trump and his Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff to push for the release of all hostages held in Gaza \u201cthis week,\u201d dismissing the multi-staged approach to the ceasefire deal agreed by Israel and Hamas. <\/p>\n

\u201cOur plea to you (Trump and Witkoff) right now is, now that you\u2019ve done the hard part of getting movement, getting a deal started, let\u2019s not think about phase one and phase two and phase three and many months,\u201d Jon Goldberg-Polin said in video. \u201cLet\u2019s think bigger and faster.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cAll 76 hostages out this week. End of war. Who benefits from dragging it out for so long? Not the people of this region. Let\u2019s get it done right now,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

A total of 33 Israeli hostages are expected to be released as part of the first phase of the ceasefire agreement, which went into force on January 19 and is supposed to last six weeks. Following the release of the three hostages on Saturday, Hamas and its allies still hold a total of 73 people taken from Israel on October 7, 2023, and an additional three held since before then. Negotiations on the second and third phases are not yet believed to have begun in earnest. <\/p>\n

Hersh Goldberg-Polin was kidnapped at the same time as Levy. Both had tried to hide in a bomb shelter before they were caught and taken to Gaza in the back of a pickup truck. <\/p>\n

The Goldberg-Polins said their appeal was driven by seeing the condition of the three hostages released Saturday, and \u201chearing that Or (Levy) had no idea what happened to Hersh, hearing that Eli (Sharabi) was unaware his daughters and wife had been murdered.\u201d <\/p>\n

They said they remained close with Levy\u2019s family and that following his release one of Levy\u2019s first questions was how Hersh was doing, completely unaware that he\u2019d been killed. <\/p>\n

\u201cHe assumed that he had been released long ago,\u201d Rachel Goldberg-Polin said. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n

This post appeared first on cnn.com<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For the Israeli hostages freed Saturday, the suffering did not end when Hamas militants paraded their frail and gaunt figures on a stage in Gaza ahead of their release to the Red Cross. Only later, after the freed men arrived back on home soil, would two of them discover that some of the loved ones <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12952,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-12951","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12951","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12951"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12951\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12952"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12951"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12951"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12951"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}