Mother of hostage Andrey Kozlov: People are continuing with their lives, we’re stuck on October 7

At a weekly demonstration for the hostages in Jerusalem’s Paris Square, relatives of the 134 captives kidnapped by Hamas on October 7 are speaking to hundreds of protesters in support of a hostage deal.

Evgenia Kozlov, the mother of Russian-Israeli immigrant Andrey Kozlov, who was kidnapped by Hamas while working as a security guard at the Supernova rave on October 7, spoke in Russian to the crowd alongside a Hebrew translator.

“My life was ruined,” she says, adding that since October 7, she has done everything in her power to save him.

“I don’t know Hebrew, I get help from my friend, Google Translate and Google Maps,” says Kozlov. “Five months have passed, people are starting to forget, the wind has destroyed our posters… people are continuing with their lives… but we are still living on October 7.”