"Today, I finally decided to sit down and sum up the most illogical, surreal period I've ever been through," Former hostage Eliya Cohen posted on Instagram on Friday.
The post included photos from the day Cohen was released from captivity.
"A period of 505 days that's unlike anything anyone could imagine. 505 days of captivity. Of darkness. Of complete disconnection from the world, from my family, from my friends, from Ziva - from my life.” He only discovered after coming home that his girlfriend and now fiancée Ziv Aboud had been saved on October 7.
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Cohen explained how no film that would be produced about the hostages could recreate the feeling of being there as a hostage.
"Moments of hunger, of fear, of excruciating pain - in the body and in the heart," he explained. "And there were also incredibly hard moments, filled with a sense of loss, with total loneliness."
Cohen said that with everything Hamas took from him the day he was kidnapped, "One thing they couldn't break in me: my spirit."
"That small hope in my heart that somehow, some way, a miracle would happen and I'd come back home."
He shared that even during times of darkness, he would try to smile through it all "because that's how you beat the darkness."
'I had an entire nation behind me'
"I had an entire nation behind me," Cohen said, alluding to the weekly demonstrations calling for the return of the hostages. "Every soldier, every person who went out in the streets, who raised a sign, who shouted my name, who prayed, who physically fought to see me return - you were my miracle."
"And in all this light, I don't forget the heavy price," he wrote. "There are families who won't get their sons or daughters back. Precious soldiers who gave their lives to bring me back, to bring us back. Bereaved families who live with that pain, that emptiness, every single day - the kind no one can fill. I can't begin to imagine the depth of that pain, but I want you to know - with every breath I take, I don't forget you."
"The life I've been gifted is also thanks to them," he continued. "Thanks to the bravery and devotion of your loved ones."
"The embrace I've received from the people of Israel since I came back - it's overwhelming," Cohen wrote. "And my friends, my family, Ziva - the people who never gave up on me for even a second - I don't have the words to thank you."
He concluded, "I'm here today to remind you - life is a gift. Love. Live. Appreciate. And don't forget - even in the hardest moments, it's okay to feel despair - but never give up," Cohen concluded.