The terrorists had also persuaded him and the other hostages that their girlfriends were dating other men, Andrey Kozlov’s mother told British outlet The Telegraph.

“He said he was brainwashed… they told them that nobody wants them, that nobody is fighting for them,” she said. “They said that the Israel Defense Forces wants to kill them and that this will be the solution for the war. So, at the moment when the IDF came, Andrey thought that they came to kill them.

“It took him a while to understand that the army came to bring them back to Israel. It was only after a soldier said to them that they love them and they will be fine, that they will be safe. It was only after these words he believed,” she said, adding that he then viewed the soldiers as “superheroes.”