Sapir Cohen and her boyfriend Alexander Trufanov made what would become a fateful journey to his family’s home in Kibbutz Nahal Oz on the eve of October 7, 2023.
In a Wednesday interview with TBN Israel’s YouTube channel, Sapir reveals how Alexander’s instincts had warned against visiting the Gaza border community, but her reassurances led them to the kibbutz that would later become symbolic for the massacre that took was about to take place.
Dawn brought not just the sun but an endless wail of air raid sirens. In those terrifying moments, she turned to prayer. But salvation wouldn’t come as terrorists burst in, tearing her from her boyfriend before eventually dragging both into captivity.
“We hid under the bed, but then I heard ‘Allahu Akbar.’ I heard hundreds of terrorists storming houses. I heard things explode, the screams of the terrorists, the screams of the people killed by them, and I heard them come closer and closer to us. They were shooting everywhere, at everyone,” Sapir said.
Sapir was surrounded with Arab civilians trying to attack her as terrorists paraded their prize through Gaza’s streets on motorcycles. Thrust into Hamas’s underground tunnels, she found herself among fellow captives whose suffering mirrored her own.
“I remember that I saw the other hostages, that one of them just lay down, and he closed his eyes. He didn’t want to be a part of this reality,” Sapir told TBN. “I saw a young girl that was shaking, and I saw people that all their families were in the kibbutz on that day and they didn’t know what happened to their children, to their parents.”
Amid the darkness, she again sought divine intervention, this time praying for strength to support her fellow captives. After 55 grueling days, Sapir was freed during a brief ceasefire in November that year.
But the Trufanov family’s nightmare continues as Sasha remains in Gaza.
