Eliya Cohen was 26 when Hamas terrorists abducted him from the Nova Music Festival on October 7, 2023 - now, over a year later, he has been released and will reunite with his family as part of phase one of an incoming hostage-ceasefire deal.
Eliya was enjoying the festival with his partner Ziv, her nephew, and her nephew’s girlfriend when Hamas invaded. Hearing sirens, the pair fled to a shelter which was later renamed the “death shelter” as Hamas murdered most of the occupants. While Eliya was abducted, Ziv avoided detection by hiding under the dead bodies of partygoers for six hours.
Ziv’s nephew and his partner were killed in the death shelter.
Upon Cohen's release, his family said that "We are overwhelmed with emotion and gratitude for Eliya's return home after 505 long and torturous days in captivity. Seeing him today strengthens us and gives us great hope for the long rehabilitation process ahead.
"This is a moment of immense relief for us, for his friends, and for everyone who held onto hope and prayed for his return. We want to thank the IDF soldiers, the fighters, the Hostages Families Forum, our family liaison officer Amit, and especially all citizens of Israel for their embrace, support, and unwavering faith. Until the moment of Eliya's return to Israel, we did not know his full physical and mental condition after long months of abuse and starvation in captivity."
Signs of life
In the hours that followed the attacks, Eliya’s mother, Sigi Cohen, received photos of her son in a hospital bed in Gaza. Ziv said that she believed he was shot in the leg.
“I still didn’t believe that he’s a hostage; that he’s kidnapped, and I tried to call all the hospitals in Israel because I thought maybe it was a psychological [war] from Hamas,” she told the Media Line. “That they took the picture from a hospital in Israel and wrote this message. But after I called all the hospitals and Eliya wasn’t there, I understood that maybe it’s correct that he was in Gaza.”
In June, The Hostages and Missing Families Forum authorized the release of a Hamas video of Eliya, and fellow hostages Or Levy and the murdered hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin.
The footage, taken from Hamas terrorists’ cameras, included the instances of the kidnapping of the three hostages as well as the time they spent in a mobile shelter.
Sigi told Ynet, "We decided to publish it to show the world what the hostages went through since the day of the kidnapping. We wanted to show the terrorists’ evil and how inhuman they are."
“None of the hostages who came back to Israel saw him. And we don’t know anything about him from this moment,” Sigi told the Media line. “I feel that, I know in my heart that he’s OK, because I saw in the movie that he looks fine. He looks terrified, but he looks like we can only see his face, and he looks fine. But we don’t know anything. Nobody saw him. The army didn’t say they saw him or that they know where he is. Nothing.”
Ziv has attempted to raise awareness of her partner's plight - holding a romantic dinner for the Jewish festival of love Tu B’Av on the Tel Aviv promenade. Onlookers saw her sitting across a chair with only a poster of Eliya present.
Awaiting Eliya’s return are his girlfriend, their 11-year-old dog he rescued as a child, his three sisters, his parents, and a large number of friends.
Jerusalem Post Staff contributed to this report.