After 505 days in Hamas captivity, former hostage Eliya Cohen gave his first interview to N12 on Tuesday, where he recounted what he endured and his struggle to rebuild his life.
A month and a half after his return, Eliya spoke about how he’s still trying to build a new routine, strengthen his body that needs recovery, and regain the weight he lost.
Along with treatments for his injured leg and dealing with damaged hearing, Eliya's mental rehabilitation journey is still ongoing.
"As soon as I left the shelter, I realized my hearing wasn't in good condition," he told N12, explaining that he now has to hold his phone’s speaker to his ear to hear.
He added that it “doesn’t make sense” for the government to hear hostage testimonies and still choose to return to fighting.
"There are human beings underground there. We need to find a solution. Sit at the negotiation table and rack our brains on how to get these people out of there. In my view, it's a death sentence," he emphasized.
The Nova Festival
Eliya detailed his experience at the Nova festival, including hearing the first interception around 6 AM and calling it a "surreal fireworks display."
"I looked at [his girlfriend, Ziv Abud] and said: 'I don't want to stay here.' She told me: 'No problem, I'll get us out of here.'"
The pair were among the first to leave and find shelter, which was where they met Alon Ohel, who is still being held by Hamas.
"We received alerts on our phones about terrorist infiltrations. suddenly, a guy came saying they shot at his car. We understood it was much more than missiles, but we firmly believed the army would arrive."
He explained that while he wanted to run, Ziv told him they needed to stay and hide.
After a while, they heard pickup trucks and yelling in Arabic, and that was when the terrorists threw the first grenade.
“I jumped on Ziv, really laid flat on her, and the first thing that escaped my mouth was: 'Ziv, I love you.' The grenade exploded and killed everyone at the entrance. Ziv responded: 'Eliya, I love you.'"
Suddenly, he recalled, Aner Shapira stood up, saying, “We can't let them kill us like this.” When the next grenade was thrown, Aner caught it and threw it back out.
'Hide, yalla bye.'
When the police answered Alon, he told them they were in a shelter, and Hamas was throwing grenades and shooting at them.
“The response she gives him is: 'Hide, yalla bye,'" Eliya recounted.
"At some point, Aner was holding a grenade, and I see that they've managed to shoot him. He falls to the floor and the grenade explodes with him. That's the stage where I say: 'I can't believe it. The guy who's protecting us is gone.'"
He added that others began throwing grenades as well, until one cut off Hersh Goldberg-Polin's hand.
Eliya and Ziv buried themselves under bodies, giving each other small taps on the back to communicate that they were still alive, even when Eliya was shot.
"Well, at least up there we'll be together. There, no one will be able to interfere with us." Ziv told Eliya, who said he lived with that sentence his entire captivity.
The kidnapping
Eliya recounted that his kidnappers had “insane smiles” on their faces.
“I will never forget that smile, ever. I go to sleep with that smile; I live it. That's the smile of my kidnapping," he said.
"He chose to take the situation into his hands and said: 'I'm jumping.' We told him 'don't do it,' but while driving, he did. They stop the pickup, and they shoot him dead. We continue the drive to Gaza as if nothing happened. As if a guy didn't just jump and they shot him, and we continue to drive."
Surgery without anesthesia
In Gaza, his captors take him to an apartment and let him shower. "That's actually the first time I see myself in the mirror since the event,” he said. “I saw that I was torn apart with blood. All pieces of burnt skin on my body and face. And I look at myself and say: I can't believe I have parts of people's bodies on me right now."
In that moment, he recalled, he decided that he would live to go home.
“I'll give them what they want, and I'll be okay with them," he said.
Later, a man who claimed to be a doctor came and told him he’d remove the bullet from his leg, but without anesthesia.
"No screaming," the doctor instructed him. "If civilians outside hear you, they'll enter the house, and I have no way to protect you."
When other captives, Alon and Or Levy, were brought to the apartment, they weren’t allowed to speak to each other.
He recalled that despite being held together, Eliya only heard Or’s voice after 52 days, after they'd been separated and reunited in a tunnel.
“I said to him: 'Wow, bro, what an ugly voice you have, I can't believe it's been 52 days and that's how you sound.'"
Life in the tunnels
In the tunnels, Eliya met other captives and described the psychological torture they endured, including when Hamas terrorists told them, “'Yalla, get up. Everyone's going home. Everyone's going to mama. Yalla, get up.' We asked him: 'Wait, but what about us,' he answered: 'Don't worry, a day or two.'"
"They really believe they're going home," he said painfully. "Today, in hindsight, I understand that in their psychological warfare, they laughed about it. They always made sure to tell us how great it is for [murdered hostage Ori Danino] and Hersh, that they're home. That they met mom. That they probably told our mom that we're okay."
He added that he was chained in the tunnels for months, with a break once every two month for a shower, recalling feeling “like a monkey.”
"You have six links of space, and suddenly you find yourself with three links or with four links," he said. "He ties it closer to your leg and when he ties it closer to your leg, it's very difficult to sleep. Because your legs are cut from the friction." So many nights, he says, they couldn't sleep: "You wake up every morning to a stiff body."
The hunger
Former hostage Eli Sharabi previously said that in the end, the hardest part was hunger, and Eliya agreed.
"I agree with that. In the end, you can deal with everything. You can deal with being humiliated, you can deal with being cursed at, you can deal with chains on your legs, hunger is a daily struggle, because beyond being hungry, you're also fighting for your life. Every night you go to sleep with: 'What am I doing tomorrow to get that piece of pita?'"
He explained that they were initially fed a dry pita and two tablesboons of beans every day, but many times, their captors would “play games” with them
"Suddenly they bring less, suddenly, instead of a pita for each person there are three pitas and they tell you: 'Well, share. At most I'll bring you another one later,'" he said, adding that the terrorists enjoyed watching them beg, but sometimes, they managed to appeal to their humanity..
“I have no way to describe to you this feeling when you suddenly manage to touch his heart, and he quietly enters the room and brings you some pita or some chocolate snack or some peanut butter snack like that. It's the best thing that happened to you in your life at that moment, because you survived another day."
'There's nothing more Nazi than that'
Beyond the degrading conditions, the chains, and the starvation, Eliya detailed the humiliation and relentless mental abuse he endured.
And it's not just the degraded conditions, the chains, and the extreme hunger, but also the humiliation and relentless mental abuse.
"They would come into our room once or twice a week, and 'yalla, everyone take off your clothes and underwear.'" The terrorists would then check if the hostages were “thin enough” and whether to cut their food.
"They pretend to have a discussion about it," he said.
"You look at them and see the smile on their faces, you understand it's bullshit, but you say to what levels can one sink. There's nothing more Nazi than that. I hate comparisons to the Holocaust, but this is as close as it gets."
Despite the humiliation, Eliya never gave up. He believed he'd have a life and family, but during his captivity, he didnt think he'd ever see Ziv again.
"In my belief, in no scenario in the world did I imagine she survived this. At first it was very difficult for me, the understanding that wow, I lost my partner. From the day we met we live together, sleep together and work together."
The impact of Israeli actions on captives
Eliya explained that every decision made in Israel affects how the hostages are treated in Gaza.
"Every day they bomb in Gaza, he (the terrorist) enters the room and closes our handcuffs tighter." He said. "Many, many times you find yourself in situations where they come and tell you: 'You're abusing our security prisoners, I'm abusing you here.'"
Every time conditions were made worse for Palestinian prisoners in Israel, the terrorists would tighten the chains or reduce their food.
"If there's something they didn't stop reminding us from the first moment until the last moment, it's that the moment the army tries to free us, the first thing they'll do is kill us. And then they'll go out to fight them. They made it clear that the IDF wouldn't come out a hero in this situation."
When IDF forces did near their location, however, they were moved through a cabinet in a school.
"The first thing we see is an insane apocalypse. There isn't a single building standing in Gaza; there's a deafening silence. Only IDF posters are scattered everywhere to leave the place and bodies in every corner. A terrible smell of death."
Moving to an abandoned tunnel
The group was moved to an abandoned tunnel with no electricity, water, or food.
“Of course, there's no hygiene from before, so you know, hygiene is no longer… it's no longer so interesting to you. Of course there are no beds to sleep on so you sleep on the floor."
Eliya explained that he understood that their new conditions would be much worse than before.
"At some point, we already understood that there's some deal because they started being very, very happy, and suddenly more food started coming in. A month before our return home, actually a commander defined as a 'big commander' arrived. He sees us in a terrible state and orders to remove the chains from us because basically 'the fighting is over.'"
Release and return
When Eli and Or were released, an entire country was shocked by their appearance, and apparently, it also struck the terrorists.
"They started padding us with lots of food, especially after Eli and Or's exit. It made noise."
The moment finally came, and the terrorists told Eliya that he'd be going home alone.
“Alon panicked. He was very frightened and he started crying. I looked at him and said, 'Bro, I'm leaving on March 1, and you on March 8? All good.’ I really, really believed that the second stage would come so quickly."
Eliya is not giving up on Alon
Eliya told N12 that Alon can't see out of one eye, and is in bad condition.
“We sit, lots of heart-to-heart talks. I tell him: 'Alon, build yourself a routine. Lift bottles, do some exercise. Sit, dedicate an hour or two a day to personal development. Don't forget where you came from and your family,’" he said.
Before leaving, Eliya told Alon to stay strong, promising that he wouldn’t forget him.
"A week before my exit, we sat. It was Monday after that Alon had a birthday. And Alon is crying there and saying: 'I have a birthday next week, let me out.' At that level his innocence, he's magical. And the terrorist looks at him and doesn't know how to react to the situation."
Coming home
Eliya described the moment he understood that his friends didn't return home as a shock.
"You understand that everything you built in your head, there's a chance it's not real."
He added that when he was let out of the car, he raised his hand in a victory ‘V,’ and everyone spit and threw bottles.
“If you notice, when I stand on the stage, everyone's released and they're only holding me by the hands. I came to raise my hand, and he doesn't let me raise my hand," he said.
He added that during the release ceremony, he hadn't known who Aviatar David and Guy Dalal – who were forced to watch the release from a nearby pickup truck – were, but he knew they must be hostages due to their physical condition and stress.
‘We screamed and cried in the car’
The moment Eliya heard that Ziv was alive, he thought he was being lied too.
“I told her: 'You can take me back now for another 500 days, as long as you tell me again that Ziv is alive.'"
Aftermath and ongoing recovery
One of the first places Eliya went after his release was the cemetery, where he visited the graves of his friends and some of Ziv’s family members.
Though his physical rehabilitation is progressing, mental rehabilitation is a long journey.
Love surrounds him from all directions, Eliya said. People he doesn't know greet him and ask to take photos. And in the midst of all the chaos, he doesn't forget the friends he lost and the brothers who are still there.
"I promised him, Alon, that I'm getting out of here, and until I meet you in Israel – it's not over. That's why I'm here too."
