FLASH
Shkruar nga Pamfleti
30-year-old Sasha Trufanov, an electronics engineer for Amazon, was kidnapped on October 7, 2023, by Palestinian Islamic Jihad gunmen.
Shapir Cohen's fiancée, mother and grandmother were also kidnapped and taken to Gaza. The women were released after more than 50 days, while he himself was released a year ago, after 498 days in captivity.
In his first interview, Trufanov, during a visit to London, told the BBC that with the return of Ran Gvilyi's body on Monday, all the hostages had been returned.
"It's amazing. We've been waiting for this to happen for so long. I've been carrying this burden since I came back. It was like a weight on my shoulders that prevented me from going back to my life. Even though we were released, we didn't really leave Gaza because our friends and brothers were still there," he recounts.
But this moment was sad for him, as Monday was also Vitaly's father's birthday. Trufanov discovered that his father had been killed on October 7, the day he was released in February 2025, and realized that his father was not there to meet him.
Trufanov and Cohen were visiting family in Kibbutz Nir Oz, near the Gaza border, when Palestinian gunmen attacked their home. Cohen wrapped himself in a blanket and hid under the bed, but both were captured. Trufanov was punched and stabbed in the shoulder.
"I saw the terrorist with so much anger and hatred on his face, holding the knife, trying to hit me even harder," he says.
As the attackers tried to pull Trufanov out, he managed to escape for a moment, but when he stopped running, he was shot twice in each leg.
"I felt a flash of pain go through me and I fell to the ground, then one of the terrorists hit me in the back of the head with a rifle and it split open."
When he arrived in Gaza, he says he was beaten by civilians and thought, “This is the moment he is going to die.” Unlike many other hostages, he was held almost entirely in solitary confinement.
For only two of his 498 days in captivity did Trufanov see another hostage. He was released in February 2025 after 498 days in captivity. He was initially held above ground, locked in a cage for more than six weeks, and given only enough food to survive.
There, he says he was sexually assaulted and a hidden camera recorded him showering once a week.
When they took him underground to the tunnels, Trufanov says they left him alone for months, with the kidnappers bringing him only food and then leaving him in a silent, cramped, damp space, so dark he couldn't see his hand in front of his face.
"I remember feeling like I was buried underground while I was still alive. I was losing hope. I was trying to find hope in this place. Many times I completely lost hope. I told myself: 'This is the last place you will see alive ,'" the young man concluded.
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