Ellie Shabi spent in dirty tunnels below 16 months Gaza Strip with your feet, alive on the beaten. Two years after the attack of Hamas, who started the war in Gaza, he feared that a fellow hostage came to think because a adopted son is even worse.
Israel has beaten its enemies throughout the region and ruined Gaza. But as it marks the anniversary of another serious war on Tuesday, it is not yet to return the last 48 hostages taken into the attack, about 20 of them are believed to be alive. A new US-supported Shanti Yojana has hoped to bring him home.
Shabi, 53, was freed in February. This was only when he came to know that his wife and two teenage daughters were killed in his house on October 7, 2023 by Hamas -led militants. No one can be closed for them, they say, until the return of all the hostages, their closest partner in captivity, Alon Ohail and his elder brother, Yosi’s bodies.
Starvation, insults and violence
Shabi documentation of her experiences in a book “Mortgage” released in Hebrew earlier this year. The English translation of the first memoir by a former mortgage comes out on 7 October.
In the book, Shabi describes how she was held in dark tunnels creep with most insects and mice. He and three fellow hostages were allowed to wash only every few months, and at a point by an angry guard beaten him, broke several ribs.
Only once they were revealed when they were transferred from one tunnel to another through the roads surrounded by debris.
“The most difficult thing, of course, was starvation,” Shabi said in an interview with Associated Press. “This is something that you can’t really imagine, how hungry you can be.”
As the human crisis deteriorated in Gaza, the hostages used to leave for a day by two meals in a day – usually the pitna bread. Shabi said that his prisoners ate “like Kings”, eagerly passing through human aid boxes for citizens.
When he was freed, his weight was just 44 kg (97 pounds). us President Donald Trump He said and the other two hostages released with him, “Holocost looked like the left.”
Survival comes from a small win
Hamas -led terrorists killed a total of 1,200 people and kidnapped 251 in the 7 October attack. Most have been released in ceasefire or other deals.
Israel’s anti -retraction invasive in Gaza killed more than 67,000 people, destroyed vast strips, displaced about 90% of some 2 million population and caused a human destruction, experts said that Gaza city is experiencing famine.
Shabi’s last memory of his family was a form of pure terror in his eyes as he was pulled out of his house in Kibutaz Beiry. While in captivity, before he knew that he was killed, he was firm to take his family away from Kibutaz EnglandWhere was his wife from? He is returning to Kibutz only once, going out of his house.
He knows that he will have to pass through his house at some point, as part of his rehabilitation process. He will need to spray blood stains, walls with bullets and scattered windows. But he said that he is not ready to go inside yet.
In the October 7 attack, Kibutz was destroyed and the life of any city was the most damaged, with 106 Kibutz residents killed and 30 kidnapped. In anarchy, houses including the Israeli army were burnt and opened.
For the first few weeks, Shabi was held in an apartment with a kidnapped Thai agricultural worker, who could barely communicate in English, Hebrew or Arabic. In November 2023, after a week’s ceasefire separated, it was taken to tunnels and held with three. Israel Which was taken from a concert.
Almost twice as much as the age of other hostages, Shabi played the role of a father.
He helped create exercise programs to pursue his body despite chains on his feet. Each day, he tried to share something good that happened – getting a little more food, or especially not looking at the violent guard.
No men were religious before 7 October, but in captivity they regularly prayed together. On Friday night, one of them will catch the water and recite the traditional Sabbath blessing made on alcohol. There were often tears during those prayers.
“You understand that every moment, they can kill you. If they decide to do so, you are trying to find light and special moments,” he said. “Survival is with a lot of small win.”
For all
After his release, Shabi joined the campaign to return the remaining hostages. He wrote the book, met with Trump, and addressed the United Nations Security Council.
His frenzied activism is largely inspired by his fear for 24 -year -old Alon Ohail, still held in Gaza as Israel is another major aggressive.
In January, Hamas prisoners told Shabi and others that three of them would be released as part of a ceasefire that month. When Ohail, a sensitive and talented piano player, realized that he would be left behind, he had a panic attack, Shabi said.
“We thought that this would be the message of the happiest that we will ever find, the day they will tell you that you are going to be released, but due to Alone, it became very complicated,” he said. “The day I left him, he was one of my most difficult days in captivity.”
The next time he saw that Ohail was in a hostage video released last month, Gunt and Pail.
Shabi hopes that the Stark prose of her book will take the readers to the tunnels. He wants to eliminate the war and bring the prisoners home, with strength or influence to Hawkish leaders of Israel.
He wants Ohail to know that his loved ones are “fighting like Lions” for his release.
“I am sure you have the power to survive in captivity and avoid this hell,” Shabi said while addressing Ohail. “Then one day, you will be with us. And we will do everything promised with each other.”
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