Raz Nissim Cohen turns hero during Tel Aviv attacks
Heroes may come in all shapes and sizes — but this good Sam's abs could cut through a brisket.
Kosher beefcake Raz Nissim Cohen — known for traipsing through Tel Aviv shirtless to reveal his pecs of the Promised Land — gave women another reason to swoon Monday when he rescued an elderly couple during devastating air strikes in Israel.
The Israeli hunk, a 34-year-old former professional basketball player, lives near the impact site of one of the Iranian missiles in the heart of the city and jumped into action when a lady friend told him the couple was trapped in their upper-floor apartment nearby.
4 Hunky 'Heartthrob of the Holy Land' Raz Nissim Cohen leads an elderly couple to safety after rescuing them from their hi-rise apartment during airstrikes in Tel Aviv early Monday.
AP
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'She saw me on the street and begged me to rescue them,' Cohen told The Post on Tuesday from Tel Aviv, adding that police hadn't arrived at the scene yet.
'The building looked like it would collapse like a domino,' he recalled thinking at the time.
Cohen — already known as the 'Heartthrob of the Holy Land'' — rushed into the building and up to the pair's floor, where he discovered their door bolted, he said.
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Wearing his typical outfit of athletic shorts with a gun tucked inside — and nothing else — the 6'2' 219-pound Middle East mensch jumped into action.
'I broke the door with my leg,' said the ripped hero, who recalled seeing the couple 'frozen'' inside.
4 Cohen, 34, is a former local professional basketball player.
Courtesy of Raz Nisim Cohen
'I fight with him to go out, I grabbed him,' Cohen said of the man. 'I said, 'I'm so sorry.''
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The Associated Press captured on camera the moment Cohen evacuated the pair from the faltering building, which Cohen said later collapsed.
'If I didn't go crazy in my way and fight with the couple to leave, police said they would die,' Cohen said.
The couple was quickly whisked into an ambulance, and he never caught their names.
But their son tracked him down after seeing the emotional photo and thanked him profusely for saving his parents' lives, he said.
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4 Deadly Iranian attacks have devastated Tel Aviv.
AP
While Cohen has been known by his Holy Land 'Heartthrob'' nickname for years, he can now add 'hero' in front of it, swooned the legions of ladies who already consider him the best thing since sliced challah.
'He's beautiful inside and out,' gushed Bracha Banayan, a 35-year-old New Yorker visiting Tel Aviv to film a documentary about looking for a Jewish husband.
'He saw there was a need to help — he didn't hesitate,' she said. 'It's obviously an instinct for him to take care of people.'
But Cohen insisted, 'I'm not a hero.
'God put me where I was supposed to be,'' he said.
'I don't care if people say I'm crazy,' he said, noting that he's twice rescued neighbors from fires. 'I don't care if it's dangerous. I'm crazy in my way.''
Cohen, who played a season of local professional basketball more than 10 years ago, famously crashed an interview on the street with NBA Knicks legend Nate Robinson in 2016, taunting him to go one on one.
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4 Cohen was already known for popping up around the city shirtless — to the delight of legions of female fans.
Raz Nisim Cohen/instagram
It's not clear if the pair ever met on the court.
He has become known for his physique in the meantime, to the point where 'there are two things you could count on in Tel Aviv,'' said a New York anesthesiologist who was in medical school in Tel Aviv a decade ago.
The first is great hummus. The second is Raz Nissim Cohen showing up out of nowhere without a shirt on.'
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A longtime female admirer said, 'The only time I've seen him wear a shirt in a decade is when he goes to shul.
'He's the type of guy who'd give you the shirt off his back – if he wore one – and [Monday's] act of humanity proves that.
'Who needs Iron Dome when you have Raz Nissim Cohen?' she quipped, referring to Israel's famous missile-interception system.
For his lustful fans, Cohen listed the things he's looking for in a woman.
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'If a woman looks at me and wants something for one night, I say no one nights,' he said.
'She needs to love God, the gym, and looking good,'' Cohen said — adding that blondes have the edge for him.
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