'I can breathe again' says Israeli hostage held for nearly 500 days in Gaza

A former Israeli hostage who was held for nearly 500 days in Gaza says the return of the body of the final hostage this week means all the released captives can "now breathe and start our lives again".

Thirty-year-old Sasha Troufanov, an Amazon electronics engineer, was taken hostage on 7 October 2023 by Palestinian Islamic Jihad gunmen. His fiancée Sapir Cohen, mother and grandmother were also kidnapped and taken to Gaza. The women were released after more than 50 days as hostages. He was freed a year ago, after 498 days in captivity.

In his first international interview, Troufanov, on a visit to London, told BBC News that with the return on Monday of Ran Gvili's body meaning all the hostages were back "it felt wonderful. We waited so long for this to happen.

"I was carrying this burden ever since I came back. It was like a weight on my shoulders that kept me from coming back to my life. Although we were released, we didn't really come out of Gaza because our friends and brothers were still there."

But the moment was bittersweet for him as Monday was also the birthday of his father Vitaly. Troufanov only discovered his father had been murdered on 7 October on the day he was released in February 2025 and realised his dad wasn't there to meet him.

Troufanov and Cohen had been visiting his family on Kibbutz Nir Oz near the border with Gaza when Palestinian gunmen stormed their homes. Cohen rolled herself up in blanket and hid under the bed but they were both captured. Troufanov was punched and also stabbed in the shoulder.

"I saw the terrorist with so much anger and hate in his face, holding his knife trying to stab me even more."

As the attackers tried to take Troufanov off the kibbutz he managed to momentarily escape but when he gave up running they still shot him twice in each leg.

"I just felt the rush of pain going through my brain and I fell to the ground then one of the terrorists hit me with the rifle from the back of my head and split it open."

When he arrived to Gaza, he says he was then beaten by civilians and thought "this is the moment you're going to die".

While in Gaza, Troufanov received almost no medical treatment. He was taken once to a family home and once to a hospital where his broken leg was wrapped first with a wooden broom and then with part of a metal grill.

Unlike many other hostages, he was held almost entirely in isolation. For only two of the 498 days in captivity did Troufanov see another hostage.

At the start he was held above ground, for more than six weeks locked in a cage and given barely enough food to survive. Here, he says he experienced sexual harassment where one guard repeatedly tried to encourage him to do a sexual act on himself. He also says a hidden camera filmed him when he was allowed a shower once a week.

"I noticed it and I took the shower trying to avoid my private parts towards this angle, but I had to do it because I needed to shower."

Taken underground to the tunnels, Troufanov says he was left for months alone, his captors only bringing food then leaving him in a silent, cramped, humid space so dark he couldn't see his hand in front of his face.

"I remember feeling that I am buried underneath the ground while I am still alive. I was losing it. I was having a hard time to find hope in this place. Many times I lost hope completely. I said to myself: 'This is the last place you will see alive.'"

It is the first time since 2014 that there are no Israeli hostages held in Gaza. Two hundred and fifty-one people were taken captive during the Hamas-led attack on 7 October 2023, when about 1,200 other people were killed.

Israel responded by launching a military campaign in Gaza, during which more than 71,660 people have been killed, according to the Hamas-run health ministry. Since the ceasefire began on 10 October 2025, at least 492 Palestinians have been killed, the health ministry says, as well as four Israeli soldiers.

Now all the hostages, those alive and those who were killed, have returned to Israel the second phase of US President Donald Trump's plan to end the war in Gaza can commence. The key Rafah border crossing between Egypt and Gaza is set to open on an ongoing basis for the first time since May 2024, as required under the plan.

It also envisages the full demilitarisation of Gaza, including the disarmament of Hamas and other Palestinian groups; a technocratic Palestinian government; and the reconstruction of Gaza.

Sasha Troufanov believes that these measures aren't enough to ensure an attack like the one on 7 October won't happen again.

"Rebuilding Gaza, after what happened in the war, is understandable. But first of all we need to make sure that the people of Gaza will stop trying to hurt Israel. The terrorists were telling me: 'We will do this again and again.'

"Rebuilding Gaza and opening the Rafah crossing is in vain as it will never solve the real problem. We need to find a way to make this hatred and encouragement of terrorist activity stop."

The former hostage now has to rehabilitate mentally and physically. He is currently on crutches after surgery on his leg but hopes to dance at his wedding to Sapir Cohen in a few weeks. "It's a victory: overcoming hate and fear and saying to ourselves: 'We will build life together and we will continue.'"