UN / GAZA ISRAELI HOSTAGES

Former Israeli hostage Eli Sharabi told the Security Council that his captors in Gaza “would eat many meals a day from the UN aid in front of us, and we never received any of it,” and said, “Hamas eats like kings while hostages starve.” UNIFEED

• Video Length: 00:05:09
• Production Date: 20 March 2025
• Asset Language: English
• Personal Subject: MOHAMED KHALED KHIARI; RIYAD MANSOUR; DANNY DANON
• Corporate Name: SECURITY COUNCIL; INTERNATIONAL COMMITTEE OF THE RED CROSS - ICRC
• Subject Topical: HOSTAGES; PRISONERS POLITICAL; HUMAN RIGHTS; HUMANITARIAN CRISIS; WAR; WAR VICTIMS; CEASEFIRES
• Geographic Subject: ISRAEL; PALESTINE; GAZA
• MAMS Id: 3353142
• Parent Id: 3353142
• Alternate Title: unifeed250320b

Description

STORY: UN / GAZA ISRAELI HOSTAGES
TRT: 05:09
SOURCE: UNIFEED
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS

DATELINE: 20 MARCH 2025, NEW YORK CITY / FILE

Shotlist

FILE - NEW YORK CITY

1. Wide shot, exterior, UN Headquarters

20 MARCH 2025, NEW YORK CITY

2. Wide shot, Security Council
3. Med shot, Assistant Secretary-General Khaled Khiari addressing Council
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Khaled Khiari, Assistant Secretary-General for the Middle East, United Nations:
“The Ceasefire and hostages release deal that took effect on 19th January offered a glimmer of hope and respite by reuniting 25 Israeli hostages with their loved ones and returning the remains of eight deceased hostages who were killed on 7th October or while in captivity to their families.”
5. Wide shot, Khiari addressing Council
6. SOUNDBITE (English) Khaled Khiari, Assistant Secretary-General for the Middle East, United Nations:
“Their release and return were sadly also a moment of great anxiety, as most of the leaving hostages were paraded in front of crowds and the coffins of the deceased, including those of two young children who were killed in captivity, where displaced publicly by Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups during appalling ceremonies that violated international law.”
7. Med shot, Israeli Ambassador Danny Danon and former Israeli hostage Eli Sharabi
8. SOUNDBITE (English) Khaled Khiari, Assistant Secretary-General for the Middle East, United Nations:
“The hostages must be released immediately and unconditionally. Until their release, they must be allowed to receive visits and support from the International Committee of the Red Cross, and they must be treated with dignity and respect, in line with humanitarian principles.”
9. Wide shot, Khiari addressing Council
10. SOUNDBITE (English) Khaled Khiari, Assistant Secretary-General for the Middle East, United Nations:
“The resumed hostilities in Gaza, compounded with a lack of access and the rapidity deteriorating humanitarian situation, are exposing the remaining hostages to constant danger and life threatening conditions.”
11. Wide shot, Sharabi addressing Council
12. SOUNDBITE (English) Eli Sharabi, Former Hostage, Israel:
“For 491 days, I held on to hope. I imagined the life we would rebuild. I dreamt of seeing my family again. Only when I returned home, I learned the truth, my wife and my daughters had been slaughtered by Hamas terrorists on October 7th.”
13. Wide shot, Sharabi addressing Council
14. SOUNDBITE (English) Eli Sharabi, Former Hostage, Israel:
“I cannot begin to describe the agony. It was hell. I was fed a piece of pita a day. Maybe a sip of tea. Hunger consumed everything. They beat me. They broke my ribs. I didn't care. I just wanted a piece of bread.”
15. Wide shot, Sharabi addressing Council
16. SOUNDBITE (English) Eli Sharabi, Former Hostage, Israel:
“They would eat many meals a day from the UN aid in front of us, and we never received any of it. When you speak of humanitarian aid, remember this. Hamas eats like kings while hostages starve.”
17. Med shot, Danon
18. Wide shot, Palestinian Ambassador Riyad Mansour addressing Council
19. SOUNDBITE (English) Riyad Mansour, Permanent Observer to the United Nations, Palestine:
“Entire families obliterated in massive and indiscriminate bombardments. Children shot by Israeli snipers in the head and in the chest. Communities uprooted by force. There is not a single Palestinian family that does not have a loved one killed, wounded, detained or displaced.”
20. Various shots, Mansour addressing Council
21. SOUNDBITE (English) Riyad Mansour, Permanent Observer to the United Nations, Palestine:
“Israel arrests our children, our doctors, our teachers, our workers, family members, bystanders, parliamentarians, academics, human rights defenders. Israel considers all Palestinians guilty, all Palestinians guilty.”
22. Wide shot, Danon addressing Council
23. SOUNDBITE (English) Danny Danon, Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Israel:
“For 530 days, you have you erased the hostages. You have spoken about Gaza without mentioning the crimes of Hamas. You have debated humanitarian assistance without acknowledging the humanitarian crimes Hamas is deliberately inflicting on the hostages. You have the audacity to talk about a ceasefire without demanding that those held in Hamas' terror tunnels be freed. How can you claim to stand for international law while ignoring the hostages? You have audacity to talk about a ceasefire without demanding that those held in Hamas's tunnels be freed? How can you claim to stand for international law while ignoring the hostages?”
24. Med shot, Danon addressing Council
25. SOUNDBITE (English) Danny Danon, Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Israel:
“There are so many on this Council, you, who never fail to scream for more aid, more trucks, more shipments, more access. Yet you have never once demanded that a single piece of that aid be delivered to our hostages.”
26. Wide shot, end of Council session

Storyline

Former Israeli hostage Eli Sharabi today (20 Mar) told the Security Council that his captors in Gaza “would eat many meals a day from the UN aid in front of us, and we never received any of it,” and said, “Hamas eats like kings while hostages starve.”

Briefing the Council on the humanitarian conditions of Israeli hostages held in Gaza, the Assistant Secretary-General for the Middle East, Khaled Khiari, said, “the ceasefire and hostages release deal that took effect on 19th January offered a glimmer of hope and respite by reuniting 25 Israeli hostages with their loved ones and returning the remains of eight deceased hostages who were killed on 7th October or while in captivity to their families.”

Nevertheless, Khiari said, “their release and return were sadly also a moment of great anxiety, as most of the leaving hostages were paraded in front of crowds and the coffins of the deceased, including those of two young children who were killed in captivity, where displaced publicly by Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups during appalling ceremonies that violated international law.”

He stressed that “the hostages must be released immediately and unconditionally,” and “until their release, they must be allowed to receive visits and support from the International Committee of the Red Cross, and they must be treated with dignity and respect, in line with humanitarian principles.”

The Assistant Secretary-General said, “the resumed hostilities in Gaza, compounded with a lack of access and the rapidity deteriorating humanitarian situation, are exposing the remaining hostages to constant danger and life threatening conditions.”

Sharabi, who was held for 491 days, told the Council that while in captivity he “imagined the life we would rebuild” and “dreamt of seeing my family again.”

Only after he was released, he said, “learned the truth, my wife and my daughters had been slaughtered by Hamas terrorists on October 7th.”

Sharabi said, “I cannot begin to describe the agony. It was hell. I was fed a piece of pita a day. Maybe a sip of tea. Hunger consumed everything. They beat me. They broke my ribs. I didn't care. I just wanted a piece of bread.”

Palestinian Ambassador Riyad Mansour expressed his condolences to the former hostage, and said, “entire families obliterated in massive and indiscriminate bombardments. Children shot by Israeli snipers in the head and in the chest. Communities uprooted by force. There is not a single Palestinian family that does not have a loved one killed, wounded, detained or displaced.”

Mansour said, “Israel arrests our children, our doctors, our teachers, our workers, family members, bystanders, parliamentarians, academics, human rights defenders. Israel considers all Palestinians guilty, all Palestinians guilty.”

For his part, Israeli Ambassador Danny Danon said, “for 530 days, you have erased the hostages. You have spoken about Gaza without mentioning the crimes of Hamas. You have debated humanitarian assistance without acknowledging the humanitarian crimes Hamas is deliberately inflicting on the hostages. You have the audacity to talk about a ceasefire without demanding that those held in Hamas' terror tunnels be freed. How can you claim to stand for international law while ignoring the hostages? You have audacity to talk about a ceasefire without demanding that those held in Hamas's tunnels be freed? How can you claim to stand for international law while ignoring the hostages?”

Danon said, “there are so many on this Council, you, who never fail to scream for more aid, more trucks, more shipments, more access. Yet you have never once demanded that a single piece of that aid be delivered to our hostages.”