A former Gaza hostage’s memoir keeps the focus on those still held by Hamas

Eli Sharabi spent 16 months in filthy tunnels under the Gaza Strip with his legs chained, surviving on moldy pita. Two years after the Hamas attack that started the war in Gaza, he fears a fellow hostage he came to think of as an adopted son is enduring even worse.

Israel has battered its enemies across the region and laid waste to Gaza. But as it marks another grim war anniversary on Tuesday, it has yet to return the last 48 hostages taken in the attack, around 20 of them believed to be alive. A new U.S.-backed peace plan has raised hopes of bringing them home.

Sharabi, 53, was freed in February. It was only then that he learned that his wife and two teenage daughters had been killed in their home by Hamas-led militants on Oct. 7, 2023. There can be no closure for him, he says, until the