A table set for two, a bottle of wine, spaghetti, rose petals scattered on the white tablecloth, candles and in the background the sunset on the Tel Aviv waterfront. But there was only her on the chair, Ziv Aboudthe young woman who has been waiting for her partner for 318 days, Elijah CohenThe last time she saw him was at the Supernova music festival, the scene of the October 7 massacre.
Then Hamas terrorists took him away and no one has heard from him since. Yesterday, while couples in Israel were celebrating Tu Be-av, the Jewish holiday of love, Ziv Abud wanted to draw attention to the hostage drama by organizing a romantic dinner for two. She sat alone in front of a photo of Eliya and a small sign that read ‘My boyfriend is still a prisoner in Gaza.’ For the occasion, the young woman wore a red dress, as can be seen in the heartbreaking video posted on social media, accompanied by the notes of the song ‘Until I found you, by Stephen Sanchez. In the video taken by Channel 12, Ziv can be seen talking to passers-by who had stopped to listen to her story: some were hugging her, some were crying with her. Ziv and Eliya had been together for seven years before October 7 and, although they were not yet officially engaged, the young woman later discovered that he had bought her the ring and was going to ask her to marry him. “Her mother told me. He told everyone except me,” she told Channel 12.
“He wanted to surprise me.” The couple was at the Supernova music festival, among the first targets of the surprise attack against Israel, launched by Hamas in the early hours of that cursed October 7. When rockets began to rain down, the two hid in what has since been known as the ‘bunker of death’, outside the kibbutz of Reim. The shelter was besieged by terrorists who, with grenades and firearms, killed 16 of those who were hiding there: 4 people were taken hostage while still alive and 7 were saved by Israeli soldiers after hiding among the bodies of other young people who had taken part in the festival. Ziv Abud was among the survivors while her boyfriend was taken away by terrorists to Gaza. Since then, silence. But she has not given up and has been campaigning for the release of Eliya and all the other prisoners. In March, to celebrate the Jewish holiday of Purim, she wore a yellow dress adorned with chains to which were attached photos of the hostages. The video also moved the web.