Ex-Gaza hostage Eli Sharabi urges UNHRC to recognize hostage abuse as torture
Former Gaza hostage Eli Sharabi has urged the UN Human Rights Council to officially classify the treatment of hostages as torture. He shared his personal experience of starvation and abuse to support a report advocating for criminal investigations into those responsible.
Why it matters
The testimony brings international attention to the humanitarian crisis of hostages and seeks to establish legal precedents for their treatment under international law.
Former hostage Eli Sharabi called on the United Nations Human Rights Council on Thursday to recognize the treatment of hostages held in Gaza as torture and demand criminal investigations into those responsible.“Mr. President, my name is Eli Sharabi. I am a survivor of torture,” Sharabi said in a prerecorded address. “For 491 days I was held underground, chained, starved, beaten and humiliated.”Sharabi was kidnapped from his home in Kibbutz Be'eri during the Hamas-led October 7 attack. His wife, Lianne, and their daughters, Noiya and Yahel, were murdered. His brother Yossi was also abducted and later killed in captivity.“I learned my family was dead only upon my release,” Sharabi told the council.Sharabi was freed in February 2025.
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