"You won everything with me": The incredible journey of Eliya and Ziv from captivity to the wedding canopy

The day they were waiting for has arrived. Eliya Cohen and Omer Shem-Tov are sitting together in a car, this time on the way to a wedding, and the dissonance hits them with force. "Eliya and I are driving in the car right now, and we are thinking about the Red Cross vehicle we rode in together in the back," says Omer Shem-Tov. That memory, from that ride from Hamas captivity to freedom, accompanies them even in the happiest moment. "A week ago I was at my sister's wedding, and I feel now that I am excited at the same level," he adds with a smile, "maybe even a little bit more."

For Eliya Cohen and Ziv Avod, the road to the chuppah was not just a matter of production, but a real survival journey that began in the death shelter on October 7. The couple was celebrating at the Nova festival when Eliya was kidnapped to Gaza. He did not know until his release that Ziv had remained alive. During this time, Ziv fought for his release. Ziv, remembered by many from the display on the Tel Aviv promenade in a red dress and at the Hostages Square in a yellow dress, says she refused suggestions to wear other colors: "My next dress will be white." And sometimes dreams come true.

The reality after returning

Real coping begins when the hype disappears. Under the festive shell, the reality of returning from captivity is much more complex than what is seen on the screen. Eliya Cohen does not hesitate to talk about the difficulties: "People saw us returning home, saw a very big hype of love and support. When this evaporated and people were sure we returned to our lives, they didn't understand that this is where the real coping actually begins." He describes the moment he realized his soul was still there: "Half a year ago I was at a lecture in Denver, and suddenly I felt I was really inside the situation. I saw the terrorists, the chains. From that moment everything woke up. Suddenly any noise could be scary, going out to the street became scary." The wedding for him is a milestone of choosing life against difficult memories.

The bullet inside the joint: learning to walk again

One of the physical obstacles on the way to the chuppah was Eliya Cohen's ankle. During captivity and the injury in the shelter, a bullet penetrated his joint. "We held him on conservative treatment until his nutritional and physical condition allowed for surgery," the doctor explains. The goal was symbolic: that Eliya would be able to stand on his feet and break the glass. Two months ago, the complex surgery was performed, and the doctor delivered the good news: "There are first signs of connection, you can start stepping on the leg." Eliya, experiencing his first steps, smiles in pain: "It's funny, in three years I learned to walk twice again. Like a baby stepping for the first time."

Barriers in the heart

Ziv Avod clarifies that it was not simple to get up and celebrate after the difficult years the couple went through. "Who tells you that for two whole years I built barriers so as not to feel? Now when I need to feel every emotion, I don't always succeed. It's not at the push of a button." Eliya completes her: "For everyone it was taken for granted - you were together for seven years, you returned, you must be together. But things don't work like that. I, in order to survive, mourned. I experienced all the stages of anger until I reached the moment when I told myself that we probably wouldn't return, but I chose to be strong." The discovery that Ziv was alive was the greatest joy, but it required hard work to dismantle walls.

Commemorating loved ones

The henna evening was accompanied by painful memories. "The last time I was at a henna, it was at the henna of two people we love the most, Amir and Hadas, 12 hours before we went to Nova," says Eliya. Before the chuppah, Avod and Cohen visited the grave of Amit Ben-Avraham, Ziv's nephew murdered at the Nova party. He was the living spirit behind their relationship. The couple's Ketubah was illustrated and written by Moshe Shapira, Aner Shapira's father, who had promised this to Ziv when Eliya's fate was still unknown.

During the walk towards the chuppah, the couple commemorated two close people who could not be with them: Yonatan, Eliya's best friend, and Amit. Using AI, the voices of both were heard at the chuppah, blessing the couple. Under the chuppah, Eliya stood by his promise: "I was always dreaming about the chuppah. I said that if I ever merit to stand in this status, I invite everyone to do 'Shema Yisrael'." The reading echoed in the event space, becoming a moment of national and personal elevation. "This picture of the two of us standing together is our victory over the bad guys," says Ziv. "I hope that even on Al Jazeera they see this chuppah. You tried to separate two souls and in the end you got a chuppah and children who will run on our holy land of Israel."