The girlfriend of newly freed hostage Sasha Troufanov said Sunday he had told her he’d prayed in captivity that she’d find another man to love, as he believed he would never be coming home.

“Thank God I have the privilege to stand here today,” Sapir Cohen told media at Sheba Medical Center.

“Last night, Sasha told me that during all this time [since he was taken hostage and held in Gaza], he prayed for me to find a man to love, prayed that I wouldn’t wait for him,” she said, her voice shaking. “He didn’t want me waiting for a man he thought would never return home. He didn’t believe he would survive.”

Cohen and Troufanov were both taken hostage from Kibbutz Nir Oz on October 7, along with Sasha’s mother and grandmother. The three women were freed during a November 2023 ceasefire.

With Troufanov safely home following his release on Saturday, Cohen said she’d now fulfilled the dreams she’d had since October 7, “dreams I never thought in my life I would have: to come home alive from captivity in Gaza and getting to hug Sasha again.”

She thanked all those who were part of the effort to bring the hostages home, soldiers who fought in Gaza and the families of the bereaved.

“To call you soldiers is to minimize what you did,” she said. “You are role models who show what unity is, what solidarity is. Thank you for showing us that it is possible.”

She thanked those who “did everything possible to change this twisted reality, and who raised our spirits every day and gave us hope. I thank God every day for the privilege I have been given to meet so many good people.”

“We must continue on this path and bring all the hostages back home. I wish that with God’s help, we the people of Israel will very soon become the family of the free.”

Sasha’s mother, former hostage Yelena Troufanov, whose

© The Times of Israel