Former Hostage Eliya Cohen Breaks Silence

Stand for Israel  |  April 2, 2025

In his first interview, Eliya Cohen explains each moment of the psychological and physical torture by Hamas terrorists that he endured during 505 days in captivity. And while he begins his long journey of rehabilitation, Eliya believes he won’t truly be able to heal until those left in Gaza come home.

Read the full interview in The Jerusalem Post. Eliya begins by explaining how the events unfolded at the Nova music festival as he tried to hide in a shelter with his girlfriend, Ziv:

“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…

“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.