Former hostage opens up about his religious journey in Hamas captivity

Sasha Trufanov describes his religious transformation during the 498 days he spent in Hamas captivity in the Gaza Strip.

By World Israel News Staff

Former hostage Alexander “Sasha” Trufanov has described how his 498 days in captivity in the Gaza Strip transformed his relationship with faith, saying he reached a point where accepting that his fate was beyond his control helped him overcome his fear of his captors.

Trufanov spoke alongside his wife, fellow former hostage Sapir Cohen, for the first installment of “Thirsty Souls,” a new Channel 14 documentary series by Eden Harel examining a growing turn toward religion and spirituality among young Israelis in the aftermath of the October 7 massacre.

Trufanov said he entered the ordeal without the tools he needed to confront what had happened to him. Before October 7, he described himself as secular, with his attention focused on his career, friends and plans for the future.

That outlook changed as captivity stripped away his ability to control even the most basic aspects of his life.

One of the pivotal moments, he said, came after an especially brutal period in Khan Younis, when he was transferred to Rafah and confined inside a small wooden cage measuring roughly two meters by one meter. Armed, masked terrorists surrounded him.

Rather than allowing the new conditions to overwhelm him, Trufanov said he tried to change the way he viewed his situation. He concluded that while he could not determine whether he survived, he could decide how he mentally faced the possibility of death.

“If God gives you this life, then you won. If not, you had 27 good years and a few bad months,” he recalled telling himself.

Trufanov said the shift dramatically reduced his fear. He began viewing his ordeal not simply as something happening to him, but as a situation in which he could still shape his own inner response.

His account echoes remarks he made following his release in February 2025. During a visit to Rabbi Yitzhak Zilberstein shortly afterward, Trufanov said faith had sustained him even in the darkest periods of captivity.

“I was released only because of God and not because of anything else,” he said at the time.

His mother, Yelena Trufanov, has also said her son emerged from captivity with a fundamentally different understanding of control and faith.

She said Sasha had previously been accustomed to planning his life and believing his future depended largely on his own decisions, but captivity forced him to recognize that neither he nor even his captors ultimately controlled what would happen to him.

The transformation became apparent almost immediately after his return.

According to the documentary, one of the first things Trufanov told his mother was that he now knew God existed. Less than a day after his release, he also put on tefillin for the first time in his life during a meeting with Russia’s Chief Rabbi Berel Lazar.

Trufanov was abducted from Kibbutz Nir Oz on October 7, 2023, together with Cohen, his mother Yelena and his grandmother Irena Tati.

His father, Vitaly, was murdered during the attack.

Cohen, Yelena and Irena were released during the November 2023 hostage deal, while Trufanov remained in Gaza for another 15 months. Palestinian Islamic Jihad released several propaganda videos of him during his captivity.

He was ultimately released on February 15, 2025, after 498 days in captivity, together with Sagui Dekel-Chen and Iair Horn.

Cohen, who spent 55 days in captivity herself, revealed after his return that Trufanov had become convinced he would never make it home and had prayed that she would move on with her life.

“He prayed I’d find another man, thinking he’d never return. But I waited,” Cohen said.

The couple’s story ultimately took another turn. Trufanov proposed several months after returning from Gaza, and the two married in July 2026 in a ceremony attended by other former hostages and President Isaac Herzog.