WATCH: Freed hostage Eliya Cohen reunites with his parents, fiancee

Lazar Berman is The Times of Israel's diplomatic reporter

Eliya Cohen reunites with his fiancee Ziv Abud soon after his release from Hamas captivity, February 22, 2025. (IDF)
Eliya Cohen reunites with his fiancee Ziv Abud soon after his release from Hamas captivity, February 22, 2025. (IDF)

Footage released by the IDF shows Eliya Cohen meeting and embracing his parents and his fiancee Ziv Abud as they reunite for the first time inside Israel.

Eliya Cohen reunites with his parents soon after his release from Hamas captivity, February 22, 2025. (IDF)
Eliya Cohen reunites with his fiance Ziv Abud soon after his release from Hamas captivity, February 22, 2025. (IDF)

“No more crying in this room, enough,” he says as his parents hug him. “How are you? How was the time for you?” he asks them.

“Excellent,” his mother Sigalit says. “How I waited for you.”

On the helicopter on the way to Beilinson Hospital in Petah Tikva with his parents and Abud, Cohen writes on a whiteboard: “I am here. I’m not being wasted anymore.”

Some more images show the reunion with family members at the hospital.

Released hostages Or Levy and Eli Sharabi, who were held with Eliya, had told Abud that her fiance had been tortured, was chained from his leg, was fed maybe one pita each day, and had lost more than 20 kilos.

Eliya Cohen with his parents and fiancee Ziv Abud on a helicopter soon after his release from Hamas captivity, February 22, 2025. (IDF)
Freed hostage Eliya Cohen reunites with family members at the Beilinson Hospital in Petah Tikva, February 22, 2025. (Haim Zach/GPO)

Freed hostage Eliya Cohen reunites with family members at the Beilinson Hospital in Petah Tikva, February 22, 2025. (Haim Zach/GPO)

Eliya Cohen reunites with his parents soon after his release from Hamas captivity, February 22, 2025. (IDF)

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