Sapir Cohen has often spoken about her spiritual experiences and the miracles she experienced during her time in Gaza, where she was held hostage underground in Hamas tunnels.
Sapir was released in November 2023 and has since been an inspiring voice for others, sharing her story with Jewish communities around the world.
Sapir Cohen, a released Israeli hostage, has told TBN Israel and Fox about her experience of being kidnapped and held captive by the terror group Hamas. Her story has been retold in the Jerusalem Post.
Cohen was kidnapped from Kibbutz Nir Oz on 7 October 2023 and then spent 55 days in captivity. When she and her boyfriend Alexander (Sacha) Troufanov were hiding from terrorists in the kibbutz, Sapir considered trying to send messages to her family but did not want to communicate anything that sounded like “goodbye,” she said.
Cohen was at the kibbutz to celebrate Simchat Torah with Troufanov’s family.
“On Saturday I woke up at 6 o’clock because of the rockets. It was raining rockets,” she explained to TBN Israel.
After an hour of rocket fire, they received a message from Alex’s mother that there were terrorists in Kibbutz Be’eri.
“We hid under the bed, but then I heard ‘Allahu Akbar’ and heard hundreds of terrorists arriving. I heard things exploding, the terrorists’ shouting, the cries of the people they were killing, and I heard them coming closer and closer. They were shooting everywhere, at everyone,” said Sapir Cohen.
Read Psalm 27 for 30 days
Terrorists broke into the house, smashed everything, and took them captive. It was the last time Cohen and Troufanov saw each other for a year and a half, and she did not know what had happened to him until she returned to Israel, the Jerusalem Post reports.
During the 20-minute motorcycle ride to Gaza, different people tried to stop the motorcycle to hit her, and once in Gaza the streets were filled with thousands of civilians who tried to touch and hit her.
“When you stand in a room like this you see what happened to the place; it brings to life how much pain people experienced and how much suffering they went through that day,” said interviewer Mati Shoshani as he and Sapir Cohen walked through Troufanov’s parents’ demolished house.
Alexanders mother Lena and grandmother Irina were released in November 2023, while Sasha was held captive until early April this year. His father was killed in the attack on 7 October.
Sapir has also told Fox News that she never lost faith, not even while captive.
When Cohen was asked about her time in captivity, she mentioned that for a few months before 7 October she had begun to feel anxiety and sensed that something bad was going to happen.
“I felt I was standing in front of something very bad [and] that only God could help me,” she said.
While scrolling through Instagram, she saw an ad about Psalm 27 which is about war.
“They wrote there that if you read it for 30 days you will be healthy, miracles will happen to you,” Sapir Cohen continued.
“I felt I wanted to pray for the first time in my life. I prayed the psalm for 30 days, and the last day was 7 October.”
Saw other hostages
In Gaza, Sapir Cohen saw several more hostages.
“I remember seeing the other hostages; one of them just lay down and closed his eyes, he didn’t want to be part of this reality,” she recounted.
“I saw a young girl who was shaking, and I saw people whose families were in the kibbutz that day and who didn’t know what had happened to their children or their parents. When I saw them it reminded me of my last wish – when I was lying under the bed – and I said: ‘God, please preserve me,’ because I felt I hadn’t done anything meaningful in my whole life,” Sapir Cohen added.
“I wanted one last chance to do something meaningful in my life. It’s really terrible to be there in captivity; this is the place where I can be the most meaningful person and I just need to choose it. I just need to choose to help the hostages and to continue my life.”
When she decided to take that responsibility, Sapir Cohen felt she received more strength and stopped thinking about things outside captivity. She only thought about the present and how she could help.
“I saw people, after three weeks, who came to my group and only got one pita bread per day,” Cohen said.
“And I met people after 50 days who were not allowed to shower or brush their teeth, and they had to lie down all those days without talking.”
“Do my best”
A young girl who was also held hostage underground in the tunnels approached Cohen and said she didn’t want to go down because it was too scary. The tunnels were dark, mouldy, and wet, and full of lice and bedbugs.
“I said: ‘What do you mean? Of course you want to go there, this is the main attraction in Gaza,’” Sapir Cohen recounted.
“And she said to me: ‘Sapir, you are crazy, but maybe I want to be crazy just like you.’ So we went to the tunnels; it’s a dark place and we were scared, but I kept saying: ‘Wow, this is a wonderful place.’”
Faith in God helped Cohen during her time as a hostage.
“It doesn’t say I will get everything I want, and it doesn’t say I will be happy all the time,” she said.
“But it has promised me one thing – that behind everything that happens there is a purpose. I just thought about that every time. If I need to be in the tunnels, I will be in the tunnels, and I will try to do my best.”
