The Israeli brothers detained for two hours by Border Force officials at Manchester Airport were hailed as heroes after they saved 150 lives battling Hamas terrorists on October 7 in a six-hour gunfight, the JC can reveal. One of their friends was murdered and the other taken hostage.

Border Force officials at Manchester Airport interrogated Daniel Sharabi, 23, and his brother Neriyah, 22, for two hours after discovering they were survivors of the Nova festival massacre, telling them, “I don’t want you to do here what you do in Gaza,” the Israelis have told the JC.

Visiting the UK to raise money for survivors of the terror attacks, brothers Daniel and Neriyah were held after flying in from Brussels on Sunday night to speak at a post-Purim business lunch in Manchester the following day.

Brothers Daniel (R) and Neriyah (L) were visiting Manchester to speak about their October 7 heroism when they were interrogated by border officials upon arrival. (Photo via Instagram)

“They were asking us what we came to the UK to do and I started telling them that we went through the October 7 massacre and we’re here to share our story. When they heard that, they just flipped,” said Neriyah.

He said two border control officials started to “interrogate” them, asking if he served in the army and what they did. “He was absolutely trying to fail us, to find something that will mean we cannot go into the country,” he said.

Neriyah Sharabi said this is his first and final visit to the UK after his harsh treatment by border officials at Manchester Airport. (Photo via Facebook)

Neriyah added: “I could tell on their faces that they didn't like us.”

Neriyah and Daniel gave the officials the details of the event they had flown in to attend, a luncheon hosted by a local Chabad and organised by the Jewish Business Network of Greater Manchester. 

One of the officials told them: “I don’t like what you came to do here,” Neriyah said.

He added that they were subjected to questioning for nearly two hours as they watched countless other travellers passing through border control in minutes.

A video taken by Daniel showed one of the officials saying to the brothers: “Just let us do the checks we need to do and keep quiet. Look at me. We’re the bosses, not you.”

Neriyah added: “In the end, after this they don’t have anything to blame on us. So they just gave us the passports and the cop says to me, ‘I want to make sure that you’re not going to do here what you do in Gaza’.

“When he said it to me I started freaking out and I didn’t feel safe, you know?”

Neriyah said he had heard reports of antisemitism in the UK but “didn’t know how big it was” until his encounter with border officials on Sunday.

“After what happened I don’t feel safe to come back to this country again,” he said. “This is my first time and my last time here.”

Daniel told the DailyMail that the experience brought back “the horror of that day which we will never forget.”

"After we were finally allowed through the airport, neither of us slept much because of the way we were treated,” he said.

“I have no doubt at all that we were detained because we were Israeli. We kept asking the officials why they had stopped us – was it because we are Israeli or because we are Jewish?” Daniel said.

“Of course they never admitted it, but it was obvious to us it was the only reason.”

The Jewish Representative Council of Greater Manchester & Region reported the incident yesterday and requested an “urgent investigation” by the UK Home Office. In a letter to Manchester Airport Group shared on social media, the Chief Executive of the council Marc Levy wrote that “the only reason for their detention and interrogation was because they are Israeli.”

Levy condemned the abuse, writing that the brothers “suffer from PTSD and had come to the UK to speak of their experiences as survivors of terrorism” only to be abused by a Border Official who “was motivated by antisemitic intent.”

Home Secretary James Cleverly responded to the request on X, writing: “We are investigating this. We do not tolerate antisemitism or any form of discrimination. This incident will be handled in line with our disciplinary procedures.”

Manchester Airport authorities have been contacted for comments.

On Monday, the Sharabi brothers attended the Purim luncheon at Chabad in the City, a department of the local Chabad Lubavitch institutions, despite the incident.

They were invited to speak about their unique experience of survival and heroism at the Nova music festival in Re’im on October 7, where they engaged in a gunfight against Hamas terrorists for over six hours and managed to save the lives of roughly 150 festival goers.

Daniel Sharabi, 23, at Nova festival on October 7.

Daniel and Neriyah, a medic in the reserves and former combat soldier respectively, took cover behind some cars with their friends when terrorists started firing missiles on the festival in the early hours of morning.

Haunting footage taken by the brothers from these early moments shows their friends Karin Journo, 24, and Yosef Haim Ohana, 23, not long before one was murdered and the other taken captive.

Daniel Sharabi (Photo via Instagram)

After running between cars to take cover from gunfire, the brothers noticed an Israeli tank about a half a kilometre away.

Neriyah said they jumped on the tank and found the soldier driving it was dead, so they took his rifle "and we start to fight back, six hours until the reserve army arrive to us.”

Over those six hours, numerous festival goers took shelter behind the tank as Daniel and Neriyah helped tend to the wounded while taking instruction from a reserve commander over the phone. The tank was hit twice by RPGs, leaving both with shrapnel in their hands.

“We arrived with something like thirteen friends and a couple of them didn’t survive,” Neriyah said. “One of them was burned alive, and the other one was kidnapped. And we know something like thirty people that lost their lives over there.”

A month after October 7, the brothers formed a non-profit organisation called The Association for Survivors and Wounded, which is dedicated to helping the 3,000+ Supernova survivors of the Hamas massacre recover from the traumatic event.

The Sharabi brothers said they are flying home earlier than planned after the incident at Manchester Airport: “If this is the treatment of the policemen I don’t want to be in this country, not even one more minute.”