Andry Kozlov, one of the four abductees, talks about his captivity experiences in Gaza
Andrey was kidnapped on October 7th from the music festival in the fields of Kibbutz Reim, where he worked as a security guard. He was rescued together with Noa Argamani (26), Almog Meir Jan (21) and Shlomi Ziv (40) in a special operation by the Israeli security forces after 246 days in Hamas captivity.
While Noa Argamani was heled in a separate building, the three abductees, Andrey, Almog, and Shlomi, were held at a Palestinian family’s home just a few streets away.
The house was separated in two with blankets and dark curtains. One half was used by a Palestinian family who were instructed to avoid any contact with the abductees, and the other accommodated the abductees guarded by armed Hamas terrorists.
Could you please share your experiences with us, I asked Andrey?
“We experienced shocking, inhumane things, some of which I cannot share because of shame”.
For a brief while, the interview appeared to have stalled. Andrey found it hard to talk about his experiences. He would respond shortly, with one or two words to the indirect questions I presented. I then recommended we talk about his personal background, his family in Russia, and his new girlfriend, hoping he would open his heart and share the horror he had experienced. And it worked. After a long friendly conversation seasoned with laughter and jokes, he began to reveal what he had kept hidden deep in his heart:
“We were held in a dark flat with hermetically closed windows; I couldn’t see anything, and I wasn’t sure if it was day or night. For two months, our hands were tied behind our backs, and our legs were shackled with rusty chains that hurt terribly and made it difficult to sit or lie down. We were forced to defecate in front of terrorists who mocked and laughed at us, telling us that Israel had forgotten about us and that we would never be free. They forced us to study the Koran every day. They beat us five or six times a day, for no reason. In those moments, images flashed through my mind from stories I had read about sadistic guards who abused prisoners to satisfy their morbid lust. I needed to pee, but they wouldn’t allow me. Only after two days, they took me to the restroom. Previously, they just placed an empty bottle in front of me and instructed me to urinate into it while my hands were tied behind my back. When they discovered I was struggling, they dragged me to the bathroom leashed like a dog, while shouting ‘go-go-go’. I said that I needed to take my pants off but my hands were tied, but they laughed and continued to drag me with the rope while chanting ‘go-go-go’. It was humiliating. I was totally helpless”.
After a short silence, while sipping from a glass of water, Andrei continues with a bitter smile on his face.
“After the Israeli Air Force bombardment intensified, they scattered us all to different locations. I found myself on a dusty floor littered with construction materials. They secured the room, turned off the light, and left me alone with my hands tied behind my back for the night. There were no blankets or pillows, only a dust-covered floor. I have a dust allergy so I couldn’t sleep. After two weeks, I was transferred to another floor, along with numerous other abductees from other floors of the building. Only after my eyes weren’t veiled did I realize that we were in a construction site.”
Do you remember how long you were held in that construction site?
“I think it was just 4 or 5 days as we were moved again. Bbecause of the incessant bombings, the terrorists began to panic. I overheard exchanges of shouts in Arabic between them. Suddenly, they began violently shoving us out and loaded us into vans. After a tense terrifying ride while bombs dropping close next to us, the van I was in came to a stop, and I was pushed into a building. I didn’t know what happened to the other abductees or where they were taken. From then on, I was moved almost every day from apartment to apartment, from tunnel to tunnel, while being shackled in both my hands and feet, and my eyes covered. After about two months of indescribable suffering, I was transferred to an apartment in the Nuseirat neighborhood, where I met two Israeli abductees. (Almog Meir Jan and Shlomi Ziv. E.P)
Andrey Kozlov immigrated to Israel from St. Petersburg all by himself. Both his parents and his brother decided to stay in Russia due to work constraints and personal commitments. In Israel, Andrey struggled financially. Despite being a clever and healthy young guy, he was unable to work since he did not speak Hebrew. Left with no choice, he worked as a security guard in stores and malls, where not mastering the Hebrew language was not an issue. When the organizers of the Berei festival were looking for security guards, he applied and was accepted.
“When the shooting began,” Andrei continues, “the music stopped and everyone began looking for ways to flee the burning field. I also started running to the open, looking for the kibbutz’s entrance, but I was met by a swarm of armed terrorists who fired at us nonstop. Then, I leaped into a ditch, and another Israeli jumped after me, who subsequently turned out to be Shlomi Ziv, one of the men I would be in captivity with in the future. But then, when I was sure that I was safe, two armed men forcibly pulled me from the ditch, and within seconds I found myself in a green van that looked like a military vehicle with Shlomi and a few others, among them two young girls. I was certain that the Israeli army had arrived to save us from the raging inferno; I had no idea I was being kidnapped. We drove for six or seven tense minutes before I realized the van was heading west, towards Gaza, rather than Israel. Then I recognized that the bearded man seated behind us, wearing a green bandana and clutching a Kalashnikov rifle, was not an Israeli soldier who had come to our rescue, but a Hamas terrorist with hostile intents.
By the way, something funny happened during that creepy ride. The terrorist ordered Shlomi to drive the vehicle. Something that became a joke in the ensuing days of captivity, both among us abductees and among the terrorists. It turned out that this young terrorist did not possess a driver’s license”.
After a loud rumbling laugh accompanied with some phrases in Russian that I couldn’t understand,
Andrey continues.
“When we drove through the breached wall on the border with Gaza, we witnessed fields full of Gazans, some on bicycles, some on donkeys, all dancing for delight. Their excitement is unbridled and barbarous. I remember the face of one of them in particular. He looked like a predatory animal. His eyes wide open, filled with malice. Some of them attempted to get into our car, we covered our faces with our hands. Shlomi was driving rapidly and nearly ran over some Gazans.
After a tensed drive that felt like a scene from an action film, the car stopped somewhere on the outskirts of Gaza. We were all ordered to get out of the vehicle, while being pushed violently into a residential building. Then six armed guys took us to the second floor of a building and forced us into one of the apartments, where our hands were bound behind our backs. Horrified and shocked we sat on the chilly floor, and I’m trying to figure out how to tell the kidnappers that I’m a Russian citizen, and that they got the wrong person”.
What goes through your head in the first few moments of being tied up and lying on the floor?
“I recall thinking one thing: I have to survive this. I attempt to distract myself with other thoughts, like it’s only a movie or a dream. I had numerous mantras that I repeated to myself in Russian.
I am still alive, every day is a gift, my family is waiting for me to come back alive. I kept saying to myself that I must return to my family, while reciting the advice from the holocaust survival Viktor Frankl’s book: ‘If you have something to live for, like a loving family, or some work to finish, then you can survive anything”
Do you remember what was the worst place you were kept at?
“There were different conditions and different people anywhere I was kept. I am unable to rate them as they were all very bad, difficult to survive, experiences that leave you with deep scars. However, I remember one place in particular that was different. It was one of the apartments I was transferred to. There was a young armed guard who brought a deck of cards and played with me, and from time to time he would let me watch the news on TV, that’s how I realized that the situation was horrible and there were hundreds of dead and many hostages”.
How about the place from which you were successfully rescued, was it better?
“The conditions were seemingly better. Our hands and feet were no longer chained, we were not bitten often as before, we didn’t have to ask for permission to go to the bathroom. Unlike the previous places, where the guards wore masks so that we wouldn’t recognize them, here they walked around freely, with no mask. However, they didn’t agree to tell us their real names. They all introduced themselves as ‘Mohammed.’ So, we had to give them names; The tall Mohammed, the dark Mohammed, the big-eyed Mohammed, the short Mohammed.” (Andrey is laughing)
How were you feeling? Has the improvement in conditions given you hope for liberation?
“The feelings of despair and fear seem to have disappeared, however, the feeling of being locked up, with no release date as inmates in civilian prisons have, was quite oppressive. What helped me keep sane and active were Shlomi and Almog, with whom I spent many months in one small room. They taught me Hebrew and I taught them Russian. At some point the kidnappers brought us sheets of paper on which we formulated trivia questions and crossword puzzles. Sometimes I did some drawing but was unable to take them with me when the heroic Israeli angels burst into the room through the window in complete surprise.”
Finaly Andrey, what would you take from this whole unexpected experience?
“I managed to learn Hebrew fast and at a level I never dreamed of. Ironically, as a captive who needed something to pass the time with, I had a rare opportunity not only to learn the language every day, 10 hours a day, but also to practice it with two Hebrew speakers, my friends Almog and Shlomi. I’m not sure I could have learned Hebrew in my usual everyday routine as a free person”.
(Andrey bursts with lough)
