Sapir Cohen, released from Gaza; boyfriend Sasha Trufanov still a hostage
Russian-Israeli Trufanov family abducted or killed on Kibbutz Nir Oz, Oct. 7; mother and grandmother freed Nov. 29
Sapir Cohen, 29, was released on November 30, 2023, from Gaza as part of an extension of a temporary cease-fire deal brokered by Qatar and the United States between Hamas and Israel. Her boyfriend Sasha Trufanov is still captive.
Mother Yelena Trufanova, 50, and her mother Irena Tati, 73, were released by Hamas on November 29 at the request of Russian President Vladimir Putin. Yelena’s husband Vitaly was murdered by Hamas on October 7.
This is the story of what befell the family that day:
Four members of the Trufanov family — grandmother Irena Tati, parents Vitaly and Yelena (Lena), son Sasha — and his girlfriend Sapir Cohen, were initially missing from Kibbutz Nir Oz after the October 7 Hamas massacres at the Gaza border town, according to Sasha’s friends.
Friends of the family, who immigrated from Russia 25 years ago, eventually learned that husband and father Vitaly Trufanov was killed on October 7.
Lena is one of three women who appear in a Hamas propaganda film that was released on October 30. It is unclear when or where the video of the women, whose statement was almost certainly dictated by their captors, was filmed.
Sasha Trufanov is an engineer employed at Annapurna Labs, an Israeli microelectronics company purchased by Amazon.
He and his girlfriend, Sapir Cohen, had recently moved in together in a Ramat Gan apartment, so when the Gaza border communities were attacked by Hamas terrorists in what became a massacre of hundreds, his friends didn’t know at first that he was there.
“When we called him, he didn’t answer,” said one friend in a video created by Bring Them Home, the ad-hoc organization documenting the stories of more than 200 Israelis missing and taken to Gaza.
“We realized he and Sapir must have been with his family in Nir Oz.”
Since the family has no other relatives in Israel, their friends stated: “We are their voices.”
A war room of 30 friends gathered quickly, and after reviewing dozens of Hamas videos, were able to identify Sapir in one, being brought to Gaza on a moped, between two terrorists, her hands held behind her head.
They found out that Sasha’s parents and grandmother had been in their home, with a safe room, while Sasha and Sapir were in another house without a safe room. It was later learned that Vitaly Trufanov had been taken from the house before the rest of the family.
Yelena Trufanova, 50, and her mother Irena Tati, 73, were released by Hamas on November 29.
