Eli Sharabi asks UN Human Rights Council to 'name these crimes,' recognize hostage abuse as torture

“I have chosen the road of justice, beyond politics and grounded in our shared humanity,” he said. “This council must recognize the torture, demand criminal investigations, and confront the terror."

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. He said he returned weighing 44 kilograms after being deliberately deprived of food during captivity.

Statement played during the United Nations Human Rights Council's 63rd session

Sharabi’s prerecorded statement was played during the speaking time allocated to the Jerusalem Institute of Justice at the council’s 63rd regular session in Geneva. The slot came during Thursday’s general debate under Agenda Item 9, which concerns racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance. The session was not a dedicated debate on Israel or the hostages.

Sharabi used the address to present findings from a September report by the Jerusalem Institute of Justice titled “Kidnapped: Hostage-Taking as a Form of Torture”. The report argues that the conditions imposed on the hostages, including starvation, isolation, physical violence, threats and psychological abuse, should be treated as torture under international law.

The institute said it compiled 6,971 data points covering 251 individual hostage profiles. Its research drew on government records, news reports, publicly available testimony, UN material and 23 confidential interviews with survivors and first responders.

According to the report, at least 78 released hostages showed signs of starvation, acute malnutrition or severe muscle wasting. It also found that 68% of the hostages held for more than 200 days were forced to participate in propaganda videos.

“The Jerusalem Institute of Justice documented the deliberate starvation of over 78 hostages,” Sharabi said. “I returned weighing just 44 kilos.”

Jerusalem Institute of Justice: UN should consider hostage-taking as torture

Sharabi also cited documentation by October 7 – Justice Without Borders, founded by international criminal law attorney Yael Vias Gvirsman. He said the organization had documented patterns of physical and psychological torture affecting 255 hostages and their families, some for more than two years and even a decade.

October 7 – Justice Without Borders provides legal representation to victims of the October 7 attack and has pursued proceedings in Israel and several international jurisdictions.

The Jerusalem Institute of Justice report calls on UN bodies and national authorities to investigate hostage-taking and associated abuse as possible torture, war crimes and crimes against humanity. It also calls for former hostages and their families to be recognized as victims of torture, with rights to rehabilitation, compensation and other forms of redress.

“The abduction of infants, elderly people and entire families from their homes, together with systematic torture and abuse, constitutes a grave assault on the fundamental values of humanity,” said Uri Morad, the institute’s director of international law and public diplomacy.

“The report points to an urgent need for a comprehensive response, including updated international legislation and the use of universal jurisdiction, to ensure that everyone responsible - from those who planned the crimes to the last guards in the tunnels - is held fully accountable,” he said. “Silence in the face of these atrocities, or describing hostage-taking as merely a bargaining tool, amounts to the normalization of torture.”

Demand for accountability for abuse endured in Hamas captivity

“The report’s legal analysis establishes that the October 7 hostage-taking was not merely ‘arbitrary detention,’ but rose to the level of torture and crimes against humanity,” said Casandra Sol Sans, the institute’s law and research officer.

“The documented practices - from extreme isolation and inhumane conditions in tunnels to the use of psychological warfare - satisfy the elements of the offenses under the Rome Statute and the UN Convention against Torture,” she said. “Because this involves breaches of fundamental, non-derogable rules of international law, states around the world have a legal duty to exercise universal jurisdiction, investigate and prosecute those responsible.”

Those are the report’s legal conclusions, rather than findings by a court or international tribunal. No judicial body has ruled on the report’s assessment.

Sharabi framed his appeal as a demand for accountability rather than a political intervention.

“I have chosen the road of justice, beyond politics and grounded in our shared humanity,” he said. “This council must act: recognize the torture, demand criminal investigations and confront the terrorist networks.