"Our hearts are stolen in gas." Petersburger Andrei Kozlov spent eight months hostage with Hamas - this is how this turned his family's life

A year ago, on October 7, 2023, the Hamas terrorists invaded Israel, killed about 1,200 people and took 251 hostages. Among the Supernova’s music festival, there was a 27-year-old Petersburger Andrei Kozlov. For eight months, the Andrei family was looking for him and lived in the unknown. In June 2024, the Israeli army liberated the Russian.

Now Andrei Kozlov in the United States, where he is in support of the remaining hostages. By the anniversary of the tragedy, “Paper” spoke with his father Mikhail Kozlov - about how his son was at the festival, how he was treated in captivity and why the family still monitors the fate of other hostages.

How Petersburger Andrey Kozlov on October 7 ended up at a music festival in Reima

- Andrei had long wanted to move to Israel. In 2021, he began to realize this idea. At the beginning of 2022, he collected all the documents for repatriation and submitted them to the Masa program, but left for Israel closer to the fall. The first six months he was engaged in the study of Hebrew and reprofiling. In Russia, he graduated from the university in the direction of public communication, and there he chose a mow-design. He liked it, but in terms of salaries he was more satisfied with the catering, so he worked as a cook and su-chef.

At the festival, he was accidental. We did not know about this, it was a one -time part -time job. Some of his acquaintances asked him to replace one of the guards.

Our family has a common chat, where almost everyone is, except my mother, she has a button phone. In the morning, Andrei wrote: “Do not worry if you know what is happening in Israel. I'm fine". And we really did not worry. Even seeing all the news [about the attack of the Hamas militants], we thought that Andrei was in Tel Aviv, and not in the south.

As a family in Sestroretsk learned about the loss of her son and was engaged in his search

- When Andrei on the same day, October 7, stopped in touch, we contacted his friends. One of them said that our son was at a party in Reima. All his friends and my aunt living in Israel joined his search.

Eugenia and I, my ex -wife and mother Andrei, lived in Sestroretsk not far from each other. She quit his job shortly before these events. On the 9th [October] she had tickets to Turkey, where she planned to meet with Andrei. When the tragedy happened, she flew to Israel. I stayed with my youngest son in Russia - he was then 17 years old, he finished the 11th grade, he had to look after him.

At first we did not understand the scale of the disaster. A few days later [after the attack on the festival], the guys found Andrei DNA on a comb. Three weeks later, Eugene passed her DNA. But they could not find him: neither among the dead or among the wounded.

Eugene lived in Israel in an apartment that Andrei rented with her friends. She stopped in his room, although the “Film Field of Family” offered her to remove individual apartments. She replied that she wanted to wait for her son at home - and lived there before his release.

On October 26, officers of the IDF came to his wife, who were assigned to our family, and said: they have accurate information that Andrei hostage. It was not Sign of Life (a sign that Andrei is alive - approx. “Papers” ), but it was a clear confidence that he was stolen and that he was in the territory of Gaza.

At first, a complete confusion was happening to the Russian Foreign Ministry, but then the Ministry of Foreign Affairs joined the work. I at least three times went to Moscow to the [Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs] Mikhail Bogdanov. Familiar families assured that they contacted Hamas and that Hamas himself came to Russia, which is why Russian hostages would be a special attitude.

This story, of course, crushed everyone. Most of all, as always, [in terms of health] went to older people. Andrey is the favorite grandson of my mother. When he was little, she often sat with him in the country.

That Andrei Kozlov talked about how he became a hostage

- We believe that our son was very lucky: he was in the least traumatically hit the gas, never was in the tunnel (according to the IDF, the bodies of Israeli hostages found the “paper” approx in the tunnels of the gas sector ). He was kept in gentle conditions and did not beat him, as far as I know, unlike Israeli soldiers. But there was psychological pressure when a person does not know if he would live the next day.

Andrei talked about how he became a hostage. When shelling began, the organizers decided to close the party. But you yourself understand, this is a trans-music party: many drank or were in a certain state [changed consciousness]. The evacuation was poorly organized. When terrorists appeared, people rushed around the site. But the terrorists actually surrounded her, it was difficult to hide. Andrei said that at first they fled in one direction, then in the other. And these are more and more distances.

At one point, when people ran around, the guys in the car brought Andrei to Andrei. We found out that there were four guys, but only one girl survived of them. When they started shooting, the friends of this girl were outside. They were killed, and she spent four hours in the car. She was still discovered by terrorists and pulled out of the car, but the IDF arrived, the girl was repaired.

Andrei did not stay on the site where the cars stopped and where then the girl’s friends were shot. About 60 people ran to the containers, Andrei was among them. Some people decided to hide among the garbage. Andrei tried to tell them that it was impossible to hide in an iron container, because there is no way out of him.

Andrei could not explain. He ran across the field in the other direction. He heard bullets buzz and fly past him, he compared them with huge bumblebees. According to him, another man fled behind him - he saw him out of the corner of his eye. When they reached some kind of ravine, Andrei jumped, but the man behind him was not.

Several times Andrei tried to get out of this ravine. In the end, he crawled out near the car and some person-a bald, without a weapon, dressed in dark jeans and a T-shirt. He told Andrei in Hebrew: "Come here." It turned out that behind the car stood a second man, also bald, but with a huge beard, with a Kalashnikov assault rifle and in military uniform. And on this mandrazh Andrei thought that it was a special forces that would save him.

A man in a dark T -shirt (he turned out to be a hostage with Andrei) got behind the wheel at the direction of the bearded. Andrei poorly understood where they were going, but he saw that Tel Aviv was left behind-the towers of the city were visible from the hill. They drove through a huge gap in the fence that encloses gas from Israel. Andrei said that near the gaps were set fire to tires.

In Gaza, the terrorist got behind the wheel and rushed around the Nuseyrate refugee camp in very densely populated places. By that time, Andrei already realized that he had been stolen. He was brought to some place. For a long time, he lay with his hands tied behind his back and with tied legs.

What Andrei talked about the conditions of keeping Hamas and how he found out that they were looking for him

- Andrei tried to tell that he was Russian, but this did not help him in captivity. The other two hostages next to him were the Israeli, but the terrorist Andrei guarding them did not like the most. The terrorist spoke poorly in English and almost on his fingers showed: “These two were born here, and you came from Russia. You yourself chose to occupy our land. You are a real occupier. "

In captivity there was a limited connection with the outside world. The hostages were sometimes allowed to watch TV, but mostly films. Once the Israeli, who was captured with Andrei, saw his portrait at a rally in Tel Aviv in the information program-and he was happy because they remember him. Andrei has not seen himself in such programs. His portraits were much smaller, because he had fewer friends and relatives in Israel.

But with the help of the Arab community in Haifa, Zhenya made a video, translated it into Arabic and spread it in publics that look in gas. She hoped that the Palestinians would understand that Andrei is from Russia and that he did not serve in the Israeli army. But it worked differently. One of the guards told Andrei: “I saw your mother. She told you about you. " Andrei did not believe him and asked him to describe his appearance. The guard replied that a woman had red hair and green eyes. And then Andrei realized that this was really his mother.

About six times, Andrei was transferred from one place to another within one district. Everywhere it was different. Somewhere badly fed. In the same house, there was a man who said: “Did you eat? Eat again. I want, when you are freed, they see that you are fat and that you treated you well. ” People are different.

Unfortunately, I see how the Israelis treat Andrei differently that they did not treat him the way they would like to portray: with beatings, cruel tortures and so on (while Andrei told the American media that he was connected and in a chain. According to him, the guards were covered with blankets, they ordered to lie on the dirty. The mattress all day and not approach the windows - approx . Andrei was just lucky. This is not his merit and not his fault.

In February 2024, Andrei intersected in captivity with Alexander Lobanov, [Russian Russian Russian, who was found dead in the tunnel of the gas sector]. From February to June, Andrei was in one place, from where he was saved.

Unfortunately, during the rescue operation, one of the commanders of the Yamam division Arnon Zamora died . When I saw one of the first posts with this news, I began to correspond in the comments with people. And there they wrote: "Now Andrei knows how to call his son." And Andrei now really thought about this idea.

I would like to express my gratitude to the Israeli defense army, the special forces that freed Andrei, and the family of the Fighter Arnon Freech to the family.

How the family learned about the liberation of Andrei and met her son eight months later

-In one of the publics [June 8, 2024] I saw that some strange operation was being performed in the Palestinian camp of refugees. After a while, Eugene called me and said that Andrei was released. I did not immediately believe, because literally the day before in different publics there were many rumors that Andrei was killed in captivity.

Then Evgenia said: people from the IDF informed her that Andrei was already flying over the territory of Israel and that they would try to arrange a video link to us. I immediately went to Evgenia - she then arrived in Russia for a week. When I called the door, Zhenya had a telephone in my hands, and Andrei on the screen.

It was a crazy day. I quickly went to my mother so that she could talk to my phone on my phone. On the night of June 9, we already flew out of St. Petersburg. We bought tickets.

Many saw our personal meeting in Israel . We were often asked why Andrei fell at his wife's feet (the video captures the moment how Andrei Kozlov immediately after liberation fell at the feet of his mother who arrived from Russia and hardly restrained his tears - approx. “Papers” ). We answered: he always does this.

As the family of Andrei Kozlov lives now and why their at home still hangs portraits of hostages

-With physical health, Andrei is now fine, with psychological-more or less. But he has panic attacks.

Now Andrei is a second time in America, he was invited to speak in support of Israel. Before that, caring people who wanted to make pleasant for Andrei after the horror experienced in New York were invited to New York.

Dima, the youngest son, and Eugene now live in Israel. My ex -wife was given a visa for 10 years. So far, no one has specific plans. But I still can’t move away from the eight months that we spent in constant monitoring of the channels and in the hope of finding something about my son. I continue to read, study Hebrew.

I still stay in Sestroretsk. I have a mother in Russia. She is 86 years old. She also has her own history of abduction. Since she was born in 1938, she was three years old when the Nazis captured her village and took her. She spent five years in captivity.

Today [October 7, 2024] I was at the Israeli consulate, where I was asked to speak about the anniversary of sad events, but I said that I would not talk about Andrei. I told the story of Elena Trufanova - this is a very cute woman who in a weekly tone recalls how in the morning of October 7 she lost her house and husband. She was sure that the militants killed her son. Elena and her mother were hostage until November, only after liberation did they learn that their son, grandson was alive. Elena in one day lost everything, she sometimes goes to her kibbutz, where militants came to, feed cats that day.

In Israel there is a tooth, on it two inscriptions - in Hebrew and in English. Below it is written: “Bring them Home Now”. 90 % of people who do not know Hebrew think that the same thing is written above. But there is an inscription: "Our hearts are abducted in gas." Andrei returned, but I think about people there. At work, I hung a huge poster with images of the stolen, at home too.

I looked at these people so often - they are all as relatives, although many are no longer alive. It is important for me that they return.

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