Four Israeli hostages including Noa Argamani rescued during ‘complex’ raid in central Gaza
The Israeli military has rescued four Israeli hostages alive from Gaza on Saturday.
They had been held there since Hamas Palestinian militants captured them on October 7 during their attack on the Supernova music festival in southern Israel, the army said.
The captives were identified by the army as Noa Argamani, Almog Meir Jan, Andrey Kozlov and Shlomi Ziv. The hostages were rescued during a “complex” operation at two locations in Nuseirat, central Gaza, according to the IDF.
Argamani, 26 had been one of the most widely recognised hostages after being kidnapped from a music festival in southern Israel.
The video of her abduction was among the first to surface in the immediate aftermath of October 7, with Argamani taken away by two Hamas fighters on a motorcycle as she screamed, “Don’t kill me!”
The video showed her boyfriend, Avinatan Or, an engineer, being led away separately.
More recently, Argamani had been featured in propaganda videos broadcast by the group.
Her mother, Liora, has stage four brain cancer and in April released a video pleading to see her daughter before she dies.
Video of Argamani embracing her father after being reunited was broadcast by Israel News 12.
An elated Argamani spoke by phone with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. In an audio message released by the government, Netanyahu is heard asking how she’s feeling. She tells him she is “very excited,” saying she hasn’t heard Hebrew in so long.
She and the other three former hostages are in good health and recovering at Tel HaShomer hospital in central Israel, Haaretz reports.
“On behalf of the entire people of Israel, I thank the IDF, the Shin Bet, the Israel Police and the Israel Defense Forces for an impressive and daring rescue operation, and I wish for the speedy return of all our abductees to their families. Israel Lives!,” Israeli President Isaac Herzog said in an X post Saturday.
The group includes the first rescued Israeli hostages since two others were freed during a raid in February. The Saturday raid was the largest single recovery of hostages captured by Hamas, bringing the total number of rescued up to seven.
Israel says that another 130 hostages remain in Gaza, though a high percentage of them could be dead as a result of deprivation from captivity, The NY Post reports.
Cheers erupted on the beaches of Tel Aviv after lifeguards announced the successful operation, videos of the moment circulating on X showed.
– With AFP
