Sivan Cohen's heartbreaking farewell to her murdered partner

Sivan Cohen shares her heartbreaking experience and pays tribute to her late partner Yaniv, who tragically lost his life at a party in Kibbutz Reim.

  (photo credit: Courtesy of the photographer)
(photo credit: Courtesy of the photographer)

Sivan Cohen never thought that the party in Kibbutz Reim, where she worked with her partner Yaniv, who be the moment she would lose the love of her life.

Yaniv was always surrounded by hundreds of friends.

"We were together for nine months and I didn't get to know all his friends," Sivan said during her tribute. "In the beginning, he was very calm and told me not to worry, these are just missiles, it will pass. But later, when we realized it was serious, I told him let's run away. He said he would have loved to stay with the party security guards and help them stop the terrorists but he didn't want to leave me alone.

The full story

"We looked for a place to hide and at the same time the first people who left the party came back injured, so we started helping them there at the medical center," she continued. "At a certain point, the shots increased. We got in the car and ran away.

"We gathered a couple of security guards who worked with us and hid behind a mountain among the trees," Sivan recalled. "Eight more people came out of nowhere and begged for help. One of them was already suffering from gunshot wounds to his hand, so Yaniv told him to come. We made room for them in the car and they crowded in with us.

"At this point we returned to the party and the policemen screamed at us, While firing live, 'Why did you come back? Run away quickly.'

'He did not take his foot off the gas'

"At this point I injured my leg. I screamed to him that I was bleeding and then I only noticed that he was injured in the shoulder and leg. Despite this, he did not take his foot off the gas, while at the same time the whole road was full of bodies."

What happened when entering the base?

"We both got out of the vehicle and lied down on different sides of it, while the rest of the passengers scattered around the base, with the exception of one who was probably dead by then," Sivan went one.

"We arrived while the base was being attacked so there was no one who could help us. At this point, he told me that he loved me and was sorry. I was unable to speak. The shooting resumed, and at this point I simply dragged myself on the sidewalk when out of nowhere came a red-haired soldier who helped me up the stairs to enter the room.

"He told me to lie down, gave me a military jacket to block the wound so that it wouldn't bleed, and left. I lay for hours on the cold floor. While I was shot in the leg, I could not stop thinking about Yaniv.

"After eight hours, during which I heard explosions and screams - and I thought I was going to die - my mother sent me a message that they were now coming to pick me up. Half an hour later, soldiers came and found me. They took me out of the base by car and then we joined the ambulance that evacuated me to Soroka Medical Center. Later, I was transferred to Wolfson."

She added: "I didn't see him when they took me out of the base and the truth is, I was sure he would get out of it, but at two in the afternoon the main captain of the party called me and informed me that he was dead.

'Our fates are now linked'

"I was released from the hospital straight to his funeral, and later I found out that an hour later, they buried the partner of a good friend who was also at the festival," Sivan went on. "Our fates are now linked. Yaniv saved me. There aren't moments when I don't break down and cry, that the physical pain dwarfs the pain of the loss, and I know he would want me to be strong, and angry if I break down.

"So, I live for him right now, with my only consolation being that we've been close for the past few months. He loved me like I had never been loved in my life, the most special man I knew and I never imagined it would end like this."