Freed hostage Eliya Cohen, on Sunday night, praised the killing of the Hamas commander who abducted him from the “shelter of death” near Re’im during the October 7 massacre, where 16 people were killed and four, including Cohen, were taken hostage.
“First of all, thank God,” Cohen said in an Instagram story. “Next in line are the rest of his friends — the triangle, the circle, the square.” His partner, Ziv Abud, filmed the video, telling him, “I think I’m the happiest person in the world right now. The terrorist who kidnapped you, who dragged you from among the bodies and threw you into a pickup truck like a sack of potatoes on the way to Gaza — the IDF took him out.”
The couple reposted footage of the kidnapping with captions reading “Bye bye.” In another clip, Cohen quipped, “Baklava, anyone?” — a pointed reference to the Palestinian custom of distributing baklava after the killing of Israelis or terror attacks in Israel.
The shelter of death massacre
Earlier in the day, the IDF and Shin Bet confirmed that an airstrike killed Hassan Mahmoud Hassan Hassin, a Nukhba company commander from Hamas’ al-Bureij Battalion, who led the Re’im terror attack and participated in the abduction of Israeli civilians.
Cohen also spoke with Jerusalem Mayor Moshe Lion, who said he learned of the killing while giving a lecture. “Yes, I saw,” Cohen replied. “They eliminated the terrorist who kidnapped me. I was told in the morning — we already celebrated.”
The father of fallen soldier Aner Shapira, who died while heroically blocking grenades thrown into the shelter of death, welcomed the killing but struck a somber note. “Of course, all the murderers are worthy of death. The world is better without them. But for every terrorist eliminated, others rise. True joy will come only when all the hostages are freed, the wounded healed, bereaved families embraced, and Israeli society united.”