Freed hostage Andrey Kozlov, who was rescued from Hamas captivity last month, spoke about his experiences in captivity, the brutal abuse he suffered at the hands of Hamas, and the moment of his rescue.
In an interview with Yediot Aharonot, Kozlov said, "It took about seven minutes of traveling to understand that they weren't saving me, they were kidnapping me," he recalled. "For seven full minutes we traveled in a car before I understood that the car isn't traveling towards Tel Aviv but in the opposite direction, towards Gaza. Before I understood that the bearded man sitting behind us and holding a gun was not a special forces member from Israel who came to resuce us. That he was a terrorist."
He continued: "During the first months, I was always tied - either with ropes, or with iron chains with locks. On both my hands and feet."
"During those initial days, it was really terrible. Only after two days did they take me to the bathroom. Before that they simply gave me an empty water bottle and told me to go with my hands tied. After that they took me to pee as if i were a dog, with a rope, like a leash, yelling, 'Nu, nu, nu.' I told them, 'I need to pull down my pants in order to go to the bathroom, and my hands are tied.' They said, 'We don't care. It was so awful. I couldn't do anything. They hit me, they kneed me in the stomach."
About his rescue, Andrey said, "The moment I boarded the helicopter, you're surrounded by soldiers, and you see below you the Gazan scenery, but Gaza continues to get farther and farther away from you, and basically you're the one who is getting farther from Gaza. It was there that I began to cry, and after a moment I began to laugh. Every possible emotion in my body just burst out [of me]."