From the Liveblog of
Tuesday, April 1, 2025
‘You find yourself begging, and they enjoy it’: Ex-hostage Eliya Cohen says captors intentionally starved him
Former hostage Eliya Cohen, who was snatched by Hamas terrorists from the Nova music festival and held captive for 505 days, tells Channel 12 that his captors drastically increased the amount of food he was given during his last weeks in captivity after the gaunt appearance of hostages released before him sparked international outrage.
Cohen was held captive with Eli Sharabi and Or Levy, who were returned to Israel on February 8, dangerously emaciated. The three were also held together with Alon Ohel, who has yet to be released.
He tells Channel 12 that for the majority of his time in captivity, he received very little food.
“You can deal with being humiliated, you can deal with being cursed at, you can deal with your legs being in chains,” he says. “Hunger is a daily struggle because, beyond being hungry, you are also fighting for your life. Every night, you go to sleep thinking, ‘what am I going to do tomorrow to get that piece of pita bread?'”
He says that most days, their captors would give each of the four men a piece of pita, and one or two spoonfuls of beans or peas, but on other days, “I would beg God for that to be the case. For it to be a dry pita with two spoons of beans.”
He says sometimes the terrorists would bring them three pitas instead of four, and ordered the men to share, claiming they would give them another one later in the day.
“You find yourself begging — and they enjoy it,” he says. “They know they are starving you.”
Cohen says that occasionally, he and the other hostages would try and make a personal appeal for their captors to provide them with more food, and were successful.
“I can’t describe that feeling when you suddenly manage to pull on his heartstrings and they quietly enter the room and bring you some pita, or chocolate bar or peanut butter bar,” he tells Channel 12. “It’s the best thing that has ever happened to you in your life at that moment, because you survived another day.”
Although he had no access to the outside world for the duration of his captivity, Cohen says he realized that a ceasefire deal must have been signed when, in late January, his captors started appearing “very, very happy.”
“Suddenly more food started coming in,” he says. “A month before we went home, a [Hamas] commander arrived. He saw us in terrible condition and ordered us to be unchained because essentially, ‘the fighting is over.'”
He says that their terrorist captors started “stuffing us with a lot of food, in particular after Eli and Or were released. It made a stir.”
Despite having been severely malnourished up until that point, Cohen says he didn’t struggle to adjust to the larger quantities of food.
“You are so insecure from the lack of certainty of nutrition and food that you want to put anything in your mouth,” he says.
The Times of Israel Community.