Eliya Cohen and Omer Wenkert, who were held hostage in Gaza for more than 500 days, were released from hospital on Tuesday, 10 days after being freed by the terrorist group.
Cohen, 27, and Wenkert, 23, who were freed on Feb. 22 as part of the ceasefire with Hamas, have completed initial tests at Rabin Medical Center’s Beilinson Hospital in Petach Tikvah and will start outpatient treatment.
They were freed alongside fellow captives Avera Mengistu, 39, Hisham al-Sayed, 36, Omer Shem Tov, 22, and Tal Shoham, 40.
Cohen was kidnapped by Hamas-led terrorists on Oct. 7, 2023, while attending the Nova music festival near Kibbutz Re’im with his fiancée, Ziv Abud, her nephew Amit and Amit’s girlfriend, Karin. Amit and Karin were murdered while fleeing to a bomb shelter during the attack. Ziv survived by hiding under their bodies.
“Suddenly I realize what I wrote: Eliya is coming back home. They took amazing care of us at Beilinson, but there’s no place like home after a year and a half,” Abud posted on Instagram on Tuesday. Later, Cohen’s fiancée posted a video clip of the two driving home with a police escort.
Wenkert was also taken from the Nova festival, which he attended with his good friend Kim Damti, 22, who was murdered during the massacre. Wenkert’s family discovered that he had been kidnapped from footage shared by Hamas, which showed him lying in a truck surrounded by terrorists.
“I didn’t breathe and I didn’t live for the 505 days of Omer’s captivity,” his grandmother told local media as Wenkert returned to his parents’ house in Gedera on Tuesday. “May all the hostages return home.”
