The parents of Nimrod Cohen, an Israel Defense Forces soldier taken captive by Hamas terrorists on Oct. 7, 2023, on Monday night released for publication footage of his abduction.
Cohen, 20, a tank gunner from the central city of Rehovot, was abducted by Hamas on Oct. 7 after his armored vehicle was attacked and overturned in the area of Kibbutz Nirim.
Cohen’s family identified him in Hamas propaganda videos released in the aftermath of the terrorist massacre, his father told JNS in July 2024.
“I knew something bad had happened because he was not responding to my WhatsApp messages. And then I saw him on a clip being dragged on the floor from his tank, that’s when I realized he had been abducted,” Yehuda Cohen said at the time.
This is the moment IDF soldier Nimrod Cohen was abducted into Gaza on October 7, 2023.
— Eylon Levy (@EylonALevy) August 25, 2025
He was guarding Israeli communities on the Gaza border.
Nimrod is still a hostage 689 days later. pic.twitter.com/FXSsHh0nnR
Former hostages have described harsh conditions in which Cohen has been held, including being confined in a small cage, shackled during interrogations and denied medical care for skin rashes and an ear infection, likely from a condition that developed in the Gazan tunnels.
The captive soldier sent a message through released hostages, telling his family: “I am OK. Don’t worry, I love you.”
Last week, Yehuda Cohen revealed that the family had been provided with videos found by the military in Gaza, including from his son’s captivity.
Cohen told reporters that the footage he was shown was more than a year old. “He says his name, that he is from Rehovot, something along the lines of ‘It’s time to release us.’ They filmed everyone and later decided when to release each video,” he said.
Fifty captives remain in Gaza, with 49 abducted 689 days ago and one, IDF Lt. Hadar Goldin, taken in 2014. Of the 50, Israel presumes that 20 are alive, though there are serious fears for the lives of two hostages.
