IN A packed hall at the Chabad Synagogue in Belgravia on Thursday, an audience of 200 sat in stunned silence as Israeli former hostages Sapir Cohen and Sasha Troufanov recounted their nightmarish ordeal. Kidnapped from Kibbutz Nir Oz during the barbaric Hamas-led assault on October 7, 2023, Cohen endured 55 days in captivity, while Troufanov suffered an unimaginable 498 days. Their stories, shared in an interview moderated by the synagogue’s rabbi, painted a vivid picture of unbridled savagery, not just from Palestinian terrorists, but from the complicit Gazan civilians who gleefully participated in the horror.
Sapir Cohen and Sasha Troufanov at the Chabad Synagogue in Belgravia
Cohen, a software engineer, and Troufanov, an Amazon employee, had travelled to the kibbutz on October 6 for Simchat Torah celebrations. Troufanov, who grew up in Nir Oz where his parents still lived, initially resisted the trip amid strains in their relationship. Cohen insisted, preferring the buffer of family around them. They stayed in a house near his parents, unaware that the next dawn would shatter their world.
Awakened at 6 am by relentless rocket fire, the couple had no time to reach a shelter. Hiding under the bed, they received chilling phone alerts: hundreds of terrorists were slaughtering residents in nearby Kibbutz Be’eri. Soon, the screams of ‘Allahu Akbar’ echoed through Nir Oz as waves of Hamas and Islamic Jihad gunmen and opportunistic Gazan civilians poured in, turning the peaceful community into a slaughterhouse. Unbeknown to them at the time, Troufanov’s father was murdered and his mother was dragged away as a hostage.
When a dozen terrorists, accompanied by looting civilians, blasted through their door, Cohen and Troufanov braced for death. Cohen was hauled on to a motorcycle which sped toward Gaza, witnessing the kibbutz ablaze: homes torched, trees engulfed in flames, and friends mercilessly gunned down. En route, one terrorist attempted to rape her, only halted by his accomplice. Entering Gaza, streets teemed with jubilant civilians cheering the invaders like conquering heroes. They swarmed round Cohen, beating her savagely until the terrorists intervened, preserving their ‘prize’ for leverage.
Troufanov’s experience was even more horrific. Beaten mercilessly, he was stabbed in the back of his neck and nearly beheaded by a knife-wielding civilian, stopped only because a terrorist saw value in a live captive. Attempting to flee, he was shot in both legs, the second bullet shattering bone and leaving him unable to walk. Dragged into Gaza, he too faced mobs of celebrating locals, their faces twisted in ecstatic hatred.
Both were initially held in, and moved between, ordinary family homes, guarded by terrorists but surrounded by civilians who showed no shred of humanity. These were not passive bystanders; they were active participants in the depravity, indoctrinated in a culture of Jew-hatred from cradle to grave. Cohen was joined by two other hostages, including a terrified 15-year-old girl. Drawing strength from a new-found role as a caregiver, Cohen shielded the child from despair. As Israeli forces advanced, they were herded into Gaza’s infamous tunnel network; dark, suffocating labyrinths of filth and isolation. Cohen quipped to the girl that she was about to see Gaza’s ‘top tourist attraction’, a grim jest to buoy her spirits. Alone much of the time, Cohen emerged after 55 days with a renewed faith, joking that if the once-irreligious Troufanov learned she now kept kosher and observed Shabbat, he’d flee back to Gaza.
Troufanov’s torment was even more infernal. Never properly treated for his wounds (he still relies on crutches today) he was shuffled between homes before being entombed in a narrow, deep tunnel. Isolated except for his guards, he spent endless days locked in a tiny cage like a beast, in pitch blackness, starving. Survival became his prayer; each dawn he expected execution brought him closer to God.
When asked if either had experienced any humanity during their ordeal, only Sasha could provide one rare glimpse. One of his Islamic Jihad captors introduced his two-year-old daughter. Her first act? Punching his broken leg, fulfilling her ‘duty’ to punish Jews. But after more visits, she softened toward him. However, the final encounter crushed any illusion: the toddler waved a massive Islamic Jihad flag, chanting for jihad and Jewish annihilation. This, Troufanov emphasised, is the poison fed to every Gazan child, their sole purpose: to eradicate Jews.
Released in stages, Cohen first, then Troufanov’s mother, and finally Troufanov himself, their reunion defied the odds. Cohen bonded deeply with Troufanov’s grieving mother, who saw no reason to live after her husband’s murder and her only child’s presumed death. Cohen’s assurances of survival, marriage, and grandchildren kept her going. Proof-of-life videos from Troufanov thrilled Cohen, though his fluctuating mentions of her sparked fears for their relationship. Today, that fear is banished: the couple announced their upcoming wedding, prompting joyous singing at the event’s close.
After the talk I asked Troufanov about the widely reported concern that Amazon had not made any public statement of support for him during the entire period of captivity. He told me that the CEO had provided private family support during his captivity, but for political reasons nothing could be made public. It is a damning indictment of humanity that even news of a company offering support to an employee held hostage in this way has to be hidden out of fear that anti-Semites would boycott them. Sasha is working again with Amazon.
Cohen and Troufanov’s accounts were raw, inspirational tales of resilience amid atrocity. Yet, as they detailed the kibbutz massacre, the flames, the screams, the blood-soaked streets, a deeper rage simmered. Not just toward the Palestinian terrorists who orchestrated this pogrom, nor the civilians who joined the frenzy with knives and cheers, but toward the millions of self-proclaimed ‘progressives’ in the West who, even now, deny these horrors outright or twistedly blame Israel. Their gaslighting echoes the darkest denials of history. I know the truth first-hand: my nephew and niece, IDF soldiers, witnessed the immediate aftermath, my niece at Be’eri on October 8, amid lingering terrorists. Their eyes saw the carnage these survivors escaped. In a world quick to forget, Cohen and Troufanov’s voices demand that we remember: evil thrives when good people look away. Their wedding isn’t just a happy ending, it’s a defiant proclamation that life, love, and truth will outlast the darkness.
