Two people who were taken hostage in Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, now engaged, told their story Thursday night in Brookline, Massachusetts.
Hamas kidnapped Sapir Cohen and Sasha Troufanov from kibbutz Nir Oz, separating them. Cohen was released in November of 2023, while Troufanov was in captivity for 520 days.
The couple took part in a discussion Thursday at Temple Emeth in Chestnut Hill.
“I was terrified,” Cohen said. “I was shaking, and all my body was wet.”
“I saw, from beneath the bed, the boot of the terrorist coming inside,” Troufanov recalled.
They were visiting Troufanov’s family at the time.
“I saw Sapir being taken out from the room, led by those terrorists,” he said. “I stood up as well. I was taken out first.”
That was the last time the couple saw each other for over a year. Both hostages were taken to Gaza.
Cohen spent 55 days in Hamas captivity.
“When I came back, I felt a different person,” she said. It was hard to me to talk with people that’s not related to the captivity.”
Troufanov was not released until February of this year. His mother and grandmother were also taken, and his father was killed by Hamas.
“About my parents, I didn’t know even what happened, if they were killed or not,” Troufanov said. “About Sapir, I at least imagined that she has been taken hostage, because this is the last thing I saw.”
He was shot through both his legs while trying to get away. The wound still affects him — he used crutches to move across the stage Thursday.
“The bullet pierced my left leg and broke the bone completely,” he said.
As a hostage, he spent much of his time in isolation.
“There was, waiting for me, a small space where I would stay for eight-and-a-half months,” Troufanov said.
The couple was reunited when he was released this year. They became engaged shortly after.
Thursday’s discussion came a week after Hamas released the remaining 20 living hostages. There are still 13 bodies of hostages taken from Israel left in Gaza.
Cohen and Troufanov plan to get married in March.
Jericho Tran
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