Released Hostage to CNN: 'I feel guilty when I eat'

As negotiations continue around the clock to secure the release of hostages still held by Hamas, released hostage Eliya Cohen shared his harrowing story and the emotional weight he still carries six months after his release.

In an interview with CNN, Cohen, who was taken hostage during the Supernova festival, recounted the horrors of his captivity and the survivor’s guilt that haunts him daily.

“I feel guilty,” Cohen said. “I feel guilty by myself. When I eat, I feel guilty. When I take a shower, I feel guilty. When I go to the hospital, I feel guilty because I know what they’re going through right now.”

Cohen was at the festival with his girlfriend, Ziv, when rockets began to fall. The couple sought shelter but were ambushed by Hamas. A grenade exploded at the entrance, killing many. Cohen threw himself over Ziv to protect her.

“I told her, ‘I love you.’ I took dead bodies and I covered myself and Ziv to survive,” he recalled.

Cohen was shot in the leg and eventually captured. He was transported to Gaza on a truck full of ecstatic Hamas terrorists, alongside other hostages, including Israeli-American Hersh Goldberg-Polin, who was severely injured while trying to prevent a grenade from detonating inside the shelter.

The two were briefly held together. Goldberg-Polin, believing he was about to be released, handed Cohen an English book as a token of hope.

“He told me, ‘Take it from me, because you get to go home. Keep it for yourself,'” said Cohen. “It gave me power to continue.”

Tragically, Goldberg-Polin was later executed by Hamas, along with five other hostages.

“We were together for three days, but it felt like 10 years,” Cohen said, his voice breaking. “I really loved him.”

Most of Cohen’s captivity took place deep in Hamas’ tunnel network beneath Gaza. There, he was held with fellow hostages Or Levy, Alon Ohel, and Eli Sharabi. Resources were scarce — the group once survived for days on a single can of beans. For a year, Cohen says, he didn’t brush his teeth. They endured psychological torment, including being told they would receive mattresses after months of sleeping on concrete — only to be given fewer than needed, forced to decide who would remain on the floor.

“One of the hostages, Alon — he’s still there — told the terrorists, ‘Give them the rest. I will sleep on the floor.’ That’s the kind of people they are.”

After 55 days in captivity, Cohen was released and reunited with his family — and with Ziv, whom he had believed was killed in the shelter attack.

“It was like a dream for a week,” Cohen said. “I looked at her and said, ‘Ziv, I can’t believe you are here.’”

Ziv, who joined part of the interview, described the moment she saw him cross the border back into Israel.

“I never let myself imagine he would return, so I would not be disappointed. Only when he crossed the border with Israeli forces, I told myself, ‘Okay, now you can breathe,’” she said.

While Cohen refrained from directly criticizing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu or the government’s ongoing military campaign in Gaza, he has previously expressed concern that continued fighting could mean “a death sentence” for remaining hostages. Other hostage families, however, have been vocal in urging a ceasefire to prioritize the lives of their loved ones.