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‘I was constantly threatened with murder’ – Freed hostage

Andrey Kozlov, 27, was told that his murder would be filmed for a propaganda video.

By World Israel News Staff

A former Hamas hostage who was freed in a dramatic daylight rescue operation by Israeli security forces spoke about his time being held by the terror group, saying that he was subjected to intense psychological torture.

Andrey Kozlov, 27, spoke to Hebrew-language news outlets about the eight months he spent alongside Shlomi Ziv, 39, and Almog Meir Jan, 22, all of whom were rescued on June 8th.

Kozlov conducted the interviews in English, as he moved to Israel from Russia just 18 months before his abduction and is not totally fluent in Hebrew – though he learned some of the language from the other hostages.

Speaking to Yediot Ahronot, Kozlov recounted that Hamas told the captives “constantly” that they would be murdered should the IDF attempt to rescue them, and that the Israeli government “wanted them to die” because they were politically inconvenient.

Kozlov told Channel 13 that the terrorists holding him often brandished large knives. He explained that his time in captivity was so mentally exhausting that he essentially went numb, and that he now struggles to return to his pre-abduction emotional state.

“My source of feelings is empty. Now, I understand everything in my mind, but a lot of things I don’t feel here,” he said, then pointed to his heart.

Kozlov said to Channel 12 that he lived in fear of his murder being broadcast on the internet, and that his captors had played on that fear.

“In some moments, I was sure that they took us for killing, for murdering and filming this process,” he said.

In one particularly harrowing incident, Kozlov said that a bearded man had removed his blindfold and told him that he would be killed soon, with his murder being filmed for a propaganda video.

“I was like, so that will be [the end] of my story… Really?