Former hostage Eliya Cohen and longtime girlfriend wed in ceremony full of symbolism
Cohen and Nova survivor Ziv Abud celebrate union, together with fellow October 7 survivors and bereaved; are wed underneath canopy decorated with prayer shawl of Abud’s slain nephew
Add ToI as a Preferred Source on GoogleJessica Steinberg, The Times of Israel's culture and lifestyles editor, covers the Sabra scene from south to north and back to the center
Former hostage Eliya Cohen married his longtime girlfriend, Ziv Abud, on Wednesday night in an emotional ceremony and celebration attended by hundreds of guests.
As Cohen and Abud posted photos of the ceremony at Ronit Farm near Herzliya, Cohen wrote, “Let’s continue to bring the light, the victory and the craziness we celebrated from yesterday until the wee morning hours.”
Cohen was released during a ceasefire in January 2025 after 505 days of captivity in Gaza.
Hamas terrorists took Cohen captive from under a pile of dead bodies in a field shelter at Kibbutz Re’im, near the Nova desert rave, during the October 7, 2023, onslaught, where he was hiding with Abud, Abud’s nephew Amit Ben Avida, and Ben Avida’s girlfriend, Karin Shwarcman.
Cohen was shot in the leg and taken hostage along with Hersh Goldberg-Polin, Alon Ohel and Or Levy.
He has said that as he was pushed into a pickup truck, the terrorists sprayed the shelter with bullets.
Cohen assumed throughout his captivity that his girlfriend and the others were dead.
Abud was one of seven survivors from the shelter; Ben Avida and Shwarcman were killed.
Throughout the months of Cohen’s captivity, Abud fought publicly for his release alongside members of his family.
At one point, in a symbolic act, she dressed in a red evening gown and sat facing a photo of Cohen at a romantic table set for two on the Tel Aviv Promenade.
The two got engaged in October 2025, ten days after the final living hostages were released from captivity.
On their wedding day, Cohen said on social media, “It’s a crazy miracle when I think that we were separated in that terrifying place and we met again in February 2025 and we’re getting married after this crazy journey together.”
Eliya Cohen was held hostage by Hamas for 505 days.
Ziv Abud was at the Nova Music Festival, just like Eliya, and survived by hiding in a pile of bodies.
Eliya didn’t know until he returned that Ziv, his fiancée, survived the massacre.
Today, the two finally got married.… pic.twitter.com/64txi36quM
— Hen Mazzig (@HenMazzig) August 19, 2026
Many former hostages, Nova survivors and bereaved family members attended the wedding, including ex-hostages Eli Sharabi and Ohel, who were held captive with Cohen for months in a tunnel in Gaza, and Omer Shem-Tov, who was released alongside Cohen and has become a close friend.
Moshe Shapira, the father of Aner Shapira — the off-duty soldier who held off Hamas terrorists at the entrance to the shelter where they were hiding before he was killed — drew and calligraphed the ketubah, the Jewish ritual wedding contract signed by Cohen and Abud, decorated with elements and places that accompanied the couple on their journey, wrote Cohen.
Singer Amir Benayoun crooned at the ceremony, as the couple stood under the wedding canopy decorated with the prayer shawl that belonged to Amit Ben Avida, Abud’s nephew.
“Amit is with us at every moment,” wrote Cohen.
In the hours before the wedding, Abud posted a photo of a tree at the event, decorated with portraits of those killed on October 7; the two have said that 48 of their friends were among the more than 360 people killed at the Nova desert rave.
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