Three years after the worst massacre in Israel’s history, Eliya Cohen — who survived 505 days in Hamas captivity — took the stage at the United Nations alongside his newlywed wife, Ziv Abud, a survivor of the Nova music festival massacre, and tried to explain to some of the world’s top diplomats what he had endured.
asserted
he → survive → what
"They didn't let me change clothes or to get a shower, even to eat or to drink," he said.
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he → let → shower
"They chained me with heavy iron chains by my leg," Cohen said during an emotional discussion moderated by Dr. Phil McGraw at Israel’s U.N. commemoration Tuesday.
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Cohen → chain → commemoration
He said lights were kept on to prevent the hostages from sleeping and that captors would enter repeatedly during the night screaming in an effort to frighten them.
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captors → say → them
Cohen said they were not permitted to use a restroom and that at times survival felt almost impossible.
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survival → say → times
But he described repeatedly forcing his mind away from the violence and toward the possibility of returning home.
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he → describe → possibility
Don't think about everything," Cohen recalled telling himself.
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Cohen → think → himself
And maybe one day, you will come back home to your family."
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you → come → family
Cohen was among the 251 people abducted during the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023 attack, when about 1,200 people were killed in southern Israel in their homes and in the Nova Music festival.
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people → abduct → festival
He personally lost 48 people he knew that day.
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he → lose → people
His wife, Ziv, carried a different piece of the same story.
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wife → carry → story
Abud and Cohen had arrived at the Nova festival shortly before dawn with her 19-year-old nephew Amit and his girlfriend Karin.
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Abud → arrive → nephew
When the attack began, they eventually took refuge in a roadside bomb shelter that Cohen said was designed for roughly eight people but became packed with 29.
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Cohen → begin → 29
Abud told the audience that more than 40 terrorists later attacked the shelter with grenades and gunfire.
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terrorists → tell → gunfire
One man inside repeatedly grabbed grenades and threw them back outside before he was killed, she said.
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she → grab → them
As the attack continued, Cohen covered Abud with bodies — an act that saved her life.
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that → continue → life
"I lost my consciousness.
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I → lose → consciousness
Eliya was kidnapped," Abud said.
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Abud → kidnap → ?
"And after seven hours, I woke up in the shelter.
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I → wake → shelter
I found myself in a pile of bodies."
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I → find → bodies
She paused, fighting back the tears.
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She → pause → tears
Abud said she then saw that Amit and Karin had been killed.
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Amit → say → ?
"I needed to sit with the bodies for seven more hours," she said.
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she → need → hours
She was eventually rescued, one of seven survivors from the shelter.
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She → rescue → shelter
"We were four people that went to the festival from the same house," Abud said, "And I'm the only one that came back home that night."
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that → go → house
For 505 days, she campaigned for Cohen’s return without knowing whether the man she loved would ever come home.
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she → campaign → return
Cohen, meanwhile, said he believed while in captivity that Abud had been killed.
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Abud → say → captivity
The couple married weeks before Tuesday’s ceremony.
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couple → marry → ceremony
"But now he's here," Abud said.
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Abud → say → ?
"And I can look forward to the future after we got married."
She said she hoped the years ahead would include "kids and family because we are here and we survived.
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we → look → kids
And we need to live a normal life," she said.
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she → need → life
Another Oct. 7 survivor who addressed the diplomats was Oriya Berlin, a young Israeli visual intelligence observer who had arrived at a base in the Gaza border area just two days before the attack.
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who → address → attack
Berlin said she woke on the morning of Oct. 7 believing she was hearing a thunderstorm.
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she → say → thunderstorm
"Outside, thousands of missiles were raining down with a single objective: to destroy my life and the lives of my friends," she said.
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she → rain → friends
Berlin and four other soldiers ran barefoot and in pajamas into a small shelter.
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Berlin → run → shelter
She said the women initially believed the incursion would resemble scenarios they had studied during training — a small squad that Israeli forces could quickly contain.
uncertain
forces → say → that
Seconds later, she said, they heard vehicles and gunfire.
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they → say → vehicles
Berlin described roughly 60 heavily armed terrorists attacking the base.
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Berlin → describe → base
At one point, she said, a message appeared in the unit’s WhatsApp group telling soldiers to shout "IDF" in Hebrew so Israeli troops could find them.
uncertain
troops → say → them
The broken Hebrew immediately raised suspicions that a terrorist had taken a soldier’s phone.
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terrorist → raise → phone
…and 59 more, not listed.
The Aporia
