The emaciated condition of Israeli hostages released from captivity in Gaza by the Palestinian militant group Hamas has sparked outrage both in Israel and the United States, with strong condemnation over their inhumane treatment. U.S. President Donald Trump and Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar compared the hostages’ appearance to that of Holocaust survivors, drawing parallels between Hamas and Nazi Germany.
On Sunday, while traveling aboard Air Force One to New Orleans to attend the Super Bowl, Trump stated that the newly released Israeli hostages looked like Holocaust survivors. He specifically mentioned the three men released the previous day—Eli Sharabi, 52, Ohad Ben Am, 56, and Or Levy, 34—saying that they had endured horrific conditions and had become severely weakened. He noted, “I don’t know how much longer we can take that. People that were healthy people a reasonably short number of years ago, and you look at them today, they look like they’ve aged 25 years, they literally look like the old pictures of Holocaust survivors, the same thing. No reason for that.”
The Holocaust survivor comparison used by Trump was first made by Sa’ar the previous day. On his X, Sa’ar stated, “Look at these images. You have spoken countless times about hunger in Gaza—who here looks starved? The terrorists? Gaza’s residents? Or only our hostages?” He pointed out that it is the hostages, not the people of Gaza, who appear to have suffered from extreme food shortages. He also criticized international discourse, which has often cited Gaza’s food crisis in criticizing Israel, by highlighting that Hamas militants and Gaza civilians appeared well-fed and healthy in the videos of the hostage release event. Sa’ar further stated, “The Nazi-like evil of Hamas must be eradicated.”
Meanwhile, it was reported that Eli Sharabi was unaware that Hamas militants had already killed his wife and daughters while he was held in Gaza. During Hamas’s staged release ceremony, militants informed Sharabi that his brother Yossi, who had been kidnapped alongside him, had died. However, they did not tell him about the deaths of his wife, Leanne, and their two daughters. After being transferred to the Israeli military in a Red Cross vehicle, Sharabi turned to a soldier beside him and asked to see Leanne and his daughters, only to be met with silence—his anticipated reunion never took place.