Chinese-Israeli woman Noa Argamani among 4 hostages rescued from Gaza
- Her mother, a Chinese immigrant with cancer, had pleaded in a poignant video for a chance to see her only daughter one last time
The four captives rescued by Israeli forces in the Gaza Strip on Saturday had been abducted from a desert rave near the border during Hamas’ wide-ranging assault into Israel on October 7. One had emerged as an icon of the agonising hostage crisis that is still far from over.
Noa Argamani, 26, appeared in a series of videos that captured the painful trajectory of their plight.
In the first, filmed by the attackers, she is being forced onto a motorbike by several men after being seized with her boyfriend, Avinatan Or, whose whereabouts are still unknown. “Don’t kill me!” she screamed with one arm outstretched, the other pinned down.
In another video released by Hamas in mid-January, she appeared gaunt and spoke – almost certainly under duress – of other hostages being killed in air strikes months into Israel’s massive offensive.
And then there was a third video, in which she appeared in family photos in the background as her mother, a Chinese immigrant to Israel who has stage four brain cancer, pleaded with her captors to release her only child so she could see her before she dies.