Partner of Gaza hostage highlights absence with staged Tu B’Av dinner on Tel Aviv beach
Ziv Abud sets up a romantic dinner for two on the Tel Aviv Promenade, but instead of sitting opposite her partner Eliya Cohen, she faced an empty chair
As the sun set over Tel Aviv Promenade on Sunday evening, and as couples across Israel celebrated Tu B’Av, the Jewish holiday of love, Ziv Abud sat alone at a table for two, facing a photo of her partner Eliya Cohen, who has been held hostage in Gaza for the last 318 days.
Abud and Cohen were at the Supernova music festival when Hamas launched its deadly terror assault on October 7. When rockets began raining down, they sought shelter inside what has since become known as the roadside “bunker of death” outside of Kibbutz Re’im.
The shelter was besieged by terrorists, who, with grenades and gunfire, killed 16 of those sheltering inside. Four people were taken hostage alive from the shelter and seven were rescued by Israeli forces, having survived by hiding among the bodies of their fellow partygoers. Abud was among the survivors while Cohen was taken by the terrorists to Gaza.
On Sunday evening, to draw attention to Cohen’s plight, and her own, Abud set up a romantic dinner for two on the Tel Aviv Promenade. Two plates and two glasses of wine were laid out on a white tablecloth covered in rose petals, while Abud, dressed in a red evening gown, sat facing a photo of her partner.
A sign taped to the table read “It’s already Tu B’av, and my fiancé is still captive in Gaza.”
In a video captured by Channel 12, Abud could be seen talking to passersby who stopped to hear her story. Some of them could be seen wiping away tears, while others embraced her.
זיו עבוד, שורדת הטבח ב-7.10.
אליה כהן, הארוס שלה, חטוף בעזה. כבר יותר מ-10 חודשים.
לפחות האזרחים מחבקים אותה. ????️ pic.twitter.com/j3rxRceMve
— Revital Salomon (@TheSharkLady) August 19, 2024
The couple had been together for seven years before October 7, and although they were not yet engaged, Abud later found out that Cohen had bought the ring he was going to ask her to marry him with.
“His mother told me that he had bought a ring, and had told everyone except me,” she told Channel 12 on Sunday. “He wanted to surprise me.”
Speaking to Hebrew media outlet Ynet in an interview ahead of Tu B’av, Abud said that she was “dreaming of the moment” Cohen returns to her from captivity.
“I’m dreaming of the wedding he planned for us, which will still take place,” she said. “There’s a great love between us.”
“In my imagination, there are only good thoughts. I don’t allow any negative thoughts to enter my head,” she said of her ability to look toward her future. “As far as I’m concerned, he’s coming back as healthy as possible, considering his captivity.
“I’m praying that he returns the same weight that he was, that they don’t God forbid starve him there, that he returns with a smile and that we can continue from the point where we left off,” she added.
Abud has also used other holidays over the last 10 months to campaign for Cohen’s release and of all those still in Hamas captivity.
In March, to mark the Jewish holiday of Purim, she dressed up in a yellow gown draped in chains with photos of the hostages attached to them.
זיו עבוד, ארוסתו של החטוף אליה כהן, הגיעה לכיכר החטופים בת״א בשמלה צהובה, במקום שמלת הכלה הלבנה שהיא אמורה ללבוש בחתונתם. ״במקום לעמוד תחת החופה אני לובשת שמלה צהובה עם שלט שהארוס שלי חטוף בעזה״, הסבירה.
168 יום במנהרות בעזה. בלתי נתפס#bringthemhomenow????️ pic.twitter.com/HGErdcTKVQ— Raz Shechnik (@RazShechnik) March 22, 2024
In total, 364 people were murdered when heavily armed Hamas-led terrorists attacked the Supernova music festival on October 7. Some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, were killed throughout southern Israel, and 251 were taken hostage to Gaza, sparking the ongoing war against Hamas.
It is believed that 111 of the 251 hostages abducted by Hamas on October 7 remain in Gaza, including the bodies of 39 confirmed dead by the IDF.
Hamas released 105 civilians during a weeklong truce in late November, and four hostages were released before that. Seven hostages have been rescued by troops alive, and the bodies of 24 hostages have also been recovered, including three mistakenly killed by the military as they tried to escape their captors.
Hamas is also holding two Israeli civilians who entered the Strip in 2014 and 2015, as well as the bodies of two IDF soldiers who were killed in 2014.
