Noa Argamani, Rescued In Gaza, Reunites With Family, Can Now Meet Mother Who Is Battling Cancer

Noa Argamani, one of the many hostages kidnapped by Hamas on October 7 from the Nova Music Festival in Negev, was rescued alive from Gaza by the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) after a “complex daytime operation” along with three others.

Her video, where she is seen on a motorbike, crying “Don’t kill me!” as she was held by Hamas militants, with her abducted boyfriend nearby, made headlines around the world. She became the face of tragedy that befell the Israelis who were killed, wounded and kidnapped by Hamas on October 7 triggering the ongoing Israel-Hamas war.

“Noa Argamani (25), Almog Meir Jan (21), Andrey Kozlov (27), and Shlomi Ziv (40), were kidnapped by the Hamas terrorist organisation from the Nova music festival on October 7. They are in good medical condition,” the military said in a statement.

The rare rescue comes eight months into war with Palestinian Hamas militants in Gaza.

During their October 7 attack on the music festival and other areas of southern Israel, militants took 251 hostages, 116 of whom now remain in the Palestinian territory, including 41 the army says are dead.

The October 7 attack resulted in the deaths of 1,194 people in Israel, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.

Israel’s retaliatory bombardments and ground offensive on Gaza have killed 36,801 people, also mostly civilians, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry.

Hamas informed the world that Noa is alive and in their custody when they released a video in January announcing the death of the two other hostages. But the video also showed Noa Argamani, 26, speaking under duress, revealing that the two men she was held captive with had been killed.

Noa Argamani’s suffering at the hands of Hamas led to global concern about how women were being treated in captivity in Gaza, amid allegations that Hamas subjected Israeli women to sexual violence.

British journalist Piers Morgan in a social media post said that it is ‘a relief’ for Noa Argamani’s mother as her daughter has been freed. “Noa Argamani, whose kidnapping by Hamas on Oct7 horrified the world, has been rescued by the IDF, with 3 other hostages. All said to be in good health. Noa’s mother has terminal brain cancer, and wanted to live long enough to see her girl come home. So happy for her,” he said.

“I want to see her one more time. Talk to her one more time. I don’t have a lot of time left in this world,” Liora Argamani, 61, who has stage four brain cancer, was quoted as saying by newspaper The Times Of Israel.

A separate set of videos released by media personality Eylon Levy showed Noa reuniting with her father and also speaking to Israeli President Isaac Herzog.

Hamas, according to Reuters, reacted to the freeing of the hostages by saying: “Israel’s freeing of four hostages after eight months “is a sign of failure, not an achievement”.

An Israeli forum for families of hostages held in Gaza hailed the rescue on Saturday of four captives from the Palestinian territory as a “miraculous triumph”.

“The heroic operation by the (Israeli army) that freed and brought home Noa Argamani, Shlomi Ziv, Andrey Kozlov, and Almog Meir Jan is a miraculous triumph,” the Hostages and Missing Families Forum said in a statement, adding it continued to call on the international community to exert pressure on Hamas to release other hostages.