The guys had been informed that the Israelis had forgotten about the prisoners they held, that the Israeli authorities saw them as a problem, and that if their existence was discovered, they may very well be targeted to eliminate them.
A special spy aircraft, or drone, was listening in and could hear what the other prisoners and Michael Kozlov’s son were saying in Hebrew, so their guards urged them to keep their voices down.
“This caused such deep psychological trauma that it forced him to some extent to believe their words,” says Kozlov.
“He was lost until he realised he was being saved.”
Andrey had been kidnapped from the Nova music festival early on October 7 along with the three other people who had been saved from Gaza’s Nuseirat camp: Noa Argamani, Almog Meir Jan, and Shlomi Ziv. Just eighteen months prior, he had relocated to Israel from Russia and was employed there as a security guard.
Eugenia Kozlova, who mostly resides in St Petersburg, has routinely been to Israel to join captive family protests and see politicians and army leaders, and was due to fly back to Tel Aviv when Israeli officials telephoned her with news about her son.
Thinking it was awful news, I said, ‘No!’ My phone slid beneath the table somewhere after I flung it away,” she remembers.
“Made to talk in a whisper”: the “miracle” rescue of the Hamas hostage in war.
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