Waltz Says Eliya Cohen Defied Hamas Propaganda After 505 Days in Captivity
Updated
Updated · Fox News · Oct 7
Waltz Says Eliya Cohen Defied Hamas Propaganda After 505 Days in Captivity
3 articles · Updated · Fox News · Oct 7
Summary
Mike Waltz told a U.N. commemoration that freed hostage Eliya Cohen twice refused Hamas efforts to stage propaganda around his release after 505 days in captivity.
Cohen told diplomats his captors chained him, deprived him of sleep, food and water, and repeatedly terrorized hostages, while he survived by focusing on the hope of returning home.
Ziv Abud, who married Cohen weeks before the event, recounted surviving the Nova festival shelter attack in which more than 40 gunmen assaulted 29 people packed inside; she was one of seven survivors.
Oriya Berlin, an Israeli military observer, said about 60 attackers overran her Gaza-border base on Oct. 7, 2023, and described how she later returned to service and public advocacy.
Waltz used the ceremony marking the attack that killed about 1,200 people and saw 251 abducted to argue Oct. 7 had backfired on Iran and to back a U.S.-supported path to prevent another Hamas assault.