Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
After being freed from Hamas captivity, Eli Sharabi returned to Israel to find that his family had been murdered in the October 7 attack. Now, a crowdfunding campaign launched by friends and supporters has raised more than NIS 1.2 million ($330,000) in just hours to help him rebuild his life.
Sharabi was held hostage in Gaza for 491 days before being released last week. Upon his return, he learned that his wife, Lianne, and daughters, Noiya and Yahel, had been killed in their home on Kibbutz Be’eri on October 7, the same day he and his brother, Yossi, were kidnapped. His brother died in captivity, and his body remains in Gaza.
live
Eli Sharabi is reunited with his family members at Sheba hospital
(Video: Roy Avraham / GPO)
"Eli is coming back to life, and we are here to build him a new future," reads the campaign message. Organizers set a goal of raising one million shekels in 24 hours to fund his physical and psychological rehabilitation, provide financial support, and help him find permanent housing. "Eli has returned to a reality that is hard to even imagine. His home is gone, but amidst all the pain, one thing remains invincible: Eli's spirit."
Sharabi’s friend, Sharon Adam, one of the campaign’s initiators, told Ynet and its sister publication Yedioth Ahronoth that the idea for the fundraiser emerged when Sharabi’s friends realized he would need long-term rehabilitation and that state support was unclear.
Get the Ynetnews app on your smartphone: Google Play: https://bit.ly/4eJ37pE | Apple App Store: https://bit.ly/3ZL7iNv
"Eli's friends and I thought about what could be done for him, and we realized that there was also a strong desire from the public to help him recover," Adam said. "We don’t know what he will receive from the state, so we decided to raise money for him to help with the long rehabilitation ahead."
The campaign launched on Thursday morning—Sharabi’s birthday—and quickly surpassed its goal.
1 View gallery
Eli Sharabi in his first meeting with family members after returning from Gaza
(Photo: IDF Spokesperson's Unit)
"I'm surprised by the pace," Adam said. "There are amazing people in this country. Eli is overwhelmed by the support. He tears up from small gestures and is grateful to the team caring for him."
Adam recalled the moment she saw Sharabi step out of the Hamas vehicle that brought him to freedom. "He was thin and emaciated, and everyone around was crying, but I smiled because he arrived in relatively good physical condition compared to what it could have been."
She said friends told him they thought Hamas would break him, to which he responded: 'They don’t have a chance.'
"He is sad, and it will take time to recover, but he is a strong man," she added.
The crowdfunding campaign remains open as contributions continue to pour in, ensuring that Sharabi will not face his new reality alone.