Gaza hostage Andrey Kozlov says Hamas militants chained him like a dog and tortured him for 245 days

A rescued hostage has told how he was kept chained up for months on end in Gaza as sadistic Hamas guards repeatedly threatened to kill him.

Andrey Kozlov, 27, was held for 245 days by the militants, who locked him in a squalid toilet and piled blankets on him in blistering heat if he disobeyed them.

He cried every day, fearing he would die, with the terrorists telling his fellow hostages Almog Meir Jan, 21, and Shlomi Ziv, 40, that they would put him “in the grave”.

But on June 8, Israeli special forces burst into the apartment, killed the two guards and rescued the men, together with Noa Argamani, 26, who was being held in a nearby building.

Yesterday, Mr Kozlov spoke about his horrific ordeal and told of his mission to help save the 120 hostages who remain trapped in Gaza.

The Russian sous chef was working as a security guard at the Nova music festival when terrorists stormed the rave on October 7 last year and he was captured.

“For the first two days of captivity, we were tied with our hands behind our backs,” he told the Mail.

“Then for two months, we were tied up in chains, in front, hands 20cm apart and legs 40cm apart. You go to the toilet like that, you sleep like that.

“You never knew what they were going to do to you.”

The three men were held for eight months and moved seven times.

They were treated differently by each guard – some allowed them to use a toilet, while others forced them to share a bucket in a room.

“One of the hardest punishments was to be covered with thick blankets in the middle of May,” he said. “I couldn’t move and you couldn’t make space to breathe fresh air.”

Mr Kozlov said that one “crazy” guard would order him “like a dog” to sit still on his mattress for two days.

When he saw the protests in Israel – calling for the hostages to be released – as the terrorists watched the news, one told him: “Your photo isn’t there – they don’t care about you.”

Another referred to a hostage who had disappeared, telling Mr Kozlov: “You’ll be next.”

In May, he heard a guard tell his fellow captives that they were going to kill him. “He promised to put me in the grave,” he said. “You repeat in your head, ‘What will I do if something bad happens?’”

The guards would taunt them on nights when hundreds of bombs released by the Israel Defence Forces rained down, claiming that Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu wanted to kill them.

“I cried almost every day,” said Mr Kozlov. “Every day you think you’re going to die. The worst thing about captivity is not knowing when it’s going to end.’ But then suddenly last month, fighters from Yamam, Israel’s counter-terrorism unit, burst in to rescue them.

“I was reading a book about Marco Polo when there was an explosion on the window,” Mr Kozlov said.

“In ten seconds, we realised it was the IDF. They killed both guards in seconds.”

He added: “There was a Russian speaker sent personally for me. He explained, ‘You will go with me, We will rescue you – and tonight you’ll be home’.”

Mr Kozlov added: “You do what they say. They defended us against all the bullets.

“They did this for us – we saw our own superheroes save us.”

He was flown to Sheba Medical Centre, near Tel Aviv, and when his mother, Evgeniia Kozlova, 52, arrived from Russia the next day, he collapsed at her feet.

“I froze. I fell on my knees and started to cry,” Mr Kozlov said.

“It was the best moment of my life.”

Now he has one mission – to help in the fight to bring all the remaining hostages back home.

“It’s the main goal,” he said. “My mind is still there in Gaza. I wish all the hostages come back as soon as possible to their families.”