The Times of Israel is liveblogging Friday’s events as they happen.
Freed hostage whose wife and daughters were killed on Oct. 7 says he’s ‘not angry’
Freed hostage Eli Sharabi says he became especially close with 24-year-old Alon Ohel while they and two other Israelis were held hostage in Gaza under cramped, painful conditions.
“I adopted him from the first minute,” Sharabi says. “24/7 together. I know everything about him and his family.”
Sharabi, 53, tells Channel 12’s “Uvda” investigative program the men were able to draw strength from one another. But Ohel took it very hard when he learned that Sharabi and the two others, Or Levy and Eliya Cohen, were being released.
Sharabi says that when he was released with Levy on February 8, Ohel grabbed him and refused to let go until their guard tore him away. He says there were “moments of hysteria” and it took about 15 minutes to calm him down.
“It was a very hard moment,” he says. “He said he was happy for me. I promised him I won’t leave him there. I will fight for him.” Cohen was released two weeks later, leaving Ohel alone.
Sharabi, who lost over 30 kilograms (66 pounds) in captivity, says terrorists held the four hostages in iron chains, and sometimes beat or humiliated them, and they subsisted for months on a single plate of pasta each day.
He says that the hunger pains were unbearable and that getting his captors to give them a dried-out date or a quarter of a piece of bread felt like a victory.
“You could know what happened in the news just from their conduct,” Sharabi says when asked if their captors were exposed to Israeli media, “and therefore… [Israeli leaders’] comments in the media have a lot of power.”
“Any irresponsible remark, the first to get it was us,” he continued. “[The captors] come to us and say, ‘They’re not giving our prisoners food, you won’t eat. They’re beating our prisoners, we’ll beat you. They don’t get a shower, you won’t get a shower.’ It’s all the time there.”
Sharabi was abducted on October 7, 2023, from his home in Kibbutz Be’eri. Sharabi says he had no access to the news and only learned after his release that his wife and two daughters, as well as his brother, were all killed in the Hamas-led attack.
Despite the pain, he says that he feels lucky to be alive and fortunate for the time he spent with his wife Lianne, and daughters, Noiya and Yahel.
“I’m not angry,” he says. “I was lucky I had Lianne for 30 years, I was lucky I had those amazing daughters for years.”
Trump: ‘Good talks’ underway on Gaza
US President Donald Trump says “good talks” are underway regarding Gaza.
Earlier tonight, Egypt announced that indirect talks on the terms of the second phase had commenced in Cairo.
Trump makes the comments at a joint press conference at the White House with visiting UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who uses the opportunity to tacitly knock the US president’s call to relocate all Palestinians out of the Strip.
Starmer says Palestinians should be allowed to return and rebuild their lives in Gaza, adding that he believes a two-state solution is the only path to lasting peace in the region.
After Trump-shared video turned Gaza into luxury resort, satirical retort brings Palestine to Mar-a-Lago
An Arab American community leader has created a satirical response to the “Trump’s Gaza” AI video that the US president shared on social media earlier this week.
The video posted by Trump appeared to depict a version of his controversial proposal for Washington to take over Gaza, relocate its residents and turn the enclave into the “Riviera of the Middle East.”
After the Trump-shared video appeared to bring Mar-a-Lago to Gaza, the Arab American community’s response brings Gaza to Mar-a-Lago.
The “Palestine’s Mar-a-Lago video shared exclusively with The Times of Israel from a community leader who requested anonymity.
An Arab American community leader’s satirical response to ‘Trump’s Gaza’ AI video shared by the US president
“The response jabs at Trump’s desire to impose an outside culture onto Gaza when he wouldn’t be willing to accept the same in his own home,” says the Arab American community leader.
Whereas “Trump’s Gaza” is played to techno music, the background music in “Palestine’s Mar-a-Lago” is oriental and offers a tour of the president’s luxury resort in Florida with what the narrator describes as “a twist.”
“It has been transformed into a vibrant celebration of Palestinian culture,” the narrator exclaims, highlighting the resorts boasting of Palestinian flags, a statue to former Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat, and Palestinian people as well.
“This unique setting is not just about visuals. It’s a reminder of the resilience and spirit of the Palestinian people. It’s a mix of beauty, culture and a bit of political satire,” the narrator says. “Even [former UK prime minister] Boris Johnson had something to say, calling Mar-a-Lago ‘A fantastic place for Gazans.'”
“The opulence of Mar-a-Lago infused with the spirit of Palestine. It’s a unique blend that you won’t see anywhere else,” says the narrator.