At a United Nations event commemorating the Oct 7, 2023 Hamas attack on Israel, Eliya Cohen, who was held captive for 505 days and lost 48 people he knew in that single day’s massacre, recounted his ordeal to world diplomats. Cohen described being chained by his leg, deprived of basic necessities like food, water, and sleep, and subjected to constant torture and fear tactics. He highlighted the mental strength required to endure captivity, focusing on returning home rather than succumbing to despair. Cohen's wife Ziv Abud, a survivor of the Nova Music festival attack where she lost her nephew and his girlfriend, shared how Cohen saved her life by covering her with bodies during the attack. The couple married shortly after Cohen’s release.
Written locally by qwen2.5:14b on 2026-10-07,
using this article's own text rather than the other coverage of the
same event (that is the story summary below).
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.
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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.
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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.
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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
