Andrey Kozlov was a security guard at the Nova party. On October 7, when he was fleeing from terrorists, he split up with his friend and a friend of Shlomi Ziv. Together they got into a car and were kidnapped to Gaza. Last Saturday, he was rescued in 'Operation Arnon.'
He was reunited with his family, who came from Russia, and with his partner Jennifer, who, although they had only been out for three months before October 7, had been waiting for him for eight months and fighting for his release.
In an interview with Adwa Dadon from News 12, she tells how she reacted when she first heard that Andrei had been rescued from captivity: "I remember I just screamed. My mother was in the kitchen and I shouted to her: 'Mom, mom, turn on the TV,' and I started jumping on the spot, like a little girl. After that, I quickly called Andrei's father and told him."
She said about the meeting at the hospital: "I remember seeing Andri on the bed in a hospital, at Sheba, and when I saw him, I just grabbed him and hugged him tightly. I took his brother Dima with me by the hand and the three of us just hugged and Andri hugged us and just got down on the floor. Without words. Just cried. Like when he met his mother Yevgenia and he knelt down, so the same thing. He just collapsed, he was so overwhelmed."
Where is Andrey now? How is he?
"He couldn't join us for the interview. He's in the hotel, resting and recovering. He needs to be with them all the time and he's in a very, very delicate, very fragile state. He's digesting it now."
What did he tell you about what he went through there?
"They changed apartments four times, Andri, Almog and Shlomi. In October and November there was a real shortage of food, so they didn't eat. They underwent very, very strong psychological abuse, more than physical. He received very harsh punishments from the terrorists. They would cover him with twenty blankets in the heat. He would ask to leave the bathroom, if he didn't knock, then they would lock him in the bathroom for an hour, and let him defecate in a pot and there wasn't even toilet paper. He showered once a week, so he asked to have his hair cut.
"Andrey is a very, very strong person and that's his advantage. Every day he wrote in his diary, another day, another day. And he promised himself that he would come back alive, that's why he didn't separate from his parents. The mere fact that he was a Russian citizen didn't improve anything. On the contrary, they would ask him: 'Why did you come to Israel? Don't you know that this country is an occupation? You are to blame, you chose to come.'"
What was the hardest for him?
"The hardest thing for him in captivity was being away from his family. He is very, very attached to his family. I was his friend for a short time, and he thought if I had already moved on, it scared him. But mostly he thought about the distance from his family and the sorrow he caused them. They forced him to draw his mother, Yevgenia, and he didn't want to. It was very hard for him, he didn't want to draw her. I have to say that his mother is his weak point and his vulnerability. Every time he remembers her, he simply breaks into pieces, because he thought he was putting his parents who are far away and who are in Russia - a nightmare. And he doesn't know how to reward them and he regrets doing this to them."
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Does he blame himself?
"Yes, he blames himself for being kidnapped. He came back a different person. He just came back a fragile and different person."
What did he tell you about the moments of the rescue?
"That it was traumatic. The terrorists who were guarding him, they kept telling him that our government wanted the hostages to die, that that was the goal. And at first he thought they were going to kill him, and then they told him: 'Andrey, Andrey, it's us. We love you, we are IDF soldiers, come with us.' And the moment he heard that, he was happy and delighted, and he couldn't believe that this day had come.
"I am in love with IDF soldiers, I am in love with our army, truly. I have no words to thank them. I have no words to thank all the parents who send their children to protect us. And I thank you, and I support you. And truly thank you. And I share in the sorrow of the family of soldier Arnon, who risked his life. We will be eternally grateful. Arnon ben Reuven and Ruthie Zmora, may their memory be blessed. You are heroes."
In an interview with the Walla website, his parents Michael and Yevgenia spoke about the difficult conditions and abuse their son endured in captivity.
"Andrei shares and talks a lot. He keeps saying that he was abused very mentally, not just physically," his parents said after he was released from the hospital. "They took away every option for choice, every freedom they had. They received strange punishments for everything they did. No matter what, from the point of view of the prisoners, it was impossible to behave 'correctly' and be okay. He told us, 'We were abused, they said that no one wants us, that Israel doesn't want to bring us back and has forgotten about us. That my mother is on a trip to Greece and she doesn't care. That the families have moved on and the IDF wants to kill them.'
"He went through a lot of psychological warfare. They tried to suppress him, tell him that they're not fighting for him, that no one cares about you and everyone has left you. Look, look why it's taking the army so long to free you, it's not fighting for you, it wants you to die, it will help them because then it will solve their problem," they said.
Along with this, "there was also physical abuse. They received all kinds of punishments. Once they covered him with six blankets in the heat for a long time as punishment for not asking permission to leave the bathroom, and they didn't allow him to move. You had to ask permission for everything."
In the first two months, he said, the conditions were more difficult. "During those two months, their hands and feet were tied behind them. He still has marks from the tying on his hands. After that, they moved their hands to being tied in front and he felt like he had gained a little freedom. These were the little things that kept him alive."
According to them, the food they received was meager, both in terms of quantity and variety, especially during those two months. During their captivity, they were moved between several different apartments. "They didn't have too much. He lived on six dates a day. Sometimes there was half a pita and a little labneh, but there was no real food."
They added that "one of the terrible things we heard from him is that there are things he will never be able to tell because he doesn't want to talk about them even with his parents."
On Saturday, when the news of the release of 27-year-old Andrei, Almog Meir Jan, Shlomi Ziv and Noa Argamani in a joint operation by security forces arrived, the parents were in Russia. "I received the news when I was not in the country. From that moment on, life regained its colors," said the mother. "I am constantly laughing, hugging everyone, receiving non-stop support from people who recognize me on the street. I am the happiest mother in the world. Full of strength.
"The first thing Andrei said to me was, 'Mom, I was saved. Mom, I was saved, I was saved twice. I didn't want to say goodbye to you on October 7, because I knew I would come back. He came back and said he knew he would come back," she said. "He said he trained there all the time so he would have strength and not get depressed. I was surprised to see him with a lot of strength and energy, I thought that after eight months he would be different. I saw a strong person with energy and I was very happy because I was afraid to accept someone else. Faith held him.
"We mainly want to say thank you for all the support, love and help of the people of Israel," they said. "The embrace and the war, that they did not abandon us or the kidnapped, and that everyone was one family under a blanket."
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