Freed Israeli hostage Noa Argamani has revealed that she went to sleep every night in Hamas captivity thinking it would be “her last night alive”.
For the first time since her rescue, Noa spoke about her experiences in captivity during her meeting with Japanese Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa on Thursday.
The 26-year-old made headlines around the world when she was filmed being dragged on the back of a motorbike into Gaza during the Hamas invasion of Israel last October.
She spent 245 days in captivity before being rescued on June 8 in a dramatic raid through a building in Nuseirat, Gaza Strip.
Yesterday she said: ‘It’s a miracle that I’m here. Every night I went to sleep thinking this could be my last night alive.
“My head was cut and I was beaten all over my body. Nobody came to visit me. Nobody came to see me. Nobody came to give me medicine. Nobody, until I was rescued. It’s a war zone.”
She increasingly called for the release of her friend Avinatan Or and the other 115 hostages, saying ‘we must bring them back before it is too late’.
Noa Argamani shares her experiences today during her meeting with Japanese Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa
Noa speaks during a visit to Tokyo on August 21
Noa listens to Israeli Ambassador to Japan Gilad Cohen (R) speaking during a meeting with representatives of the G7 embassy during a visit to Tokyo on August 21
Noa Argamani urged the return of her boyfriend Avinatan Or (pictured) and the other 115 hostages
Earlier this month, she revealed how she “fought until the very end” to stay “side by side” with the love of her life that day. “I still can’t believe that I’m here now and you, my love, are still here, living every day in endless fear,” she said.
Noa became the face of the attack on October 7, after a dramatic front page in the Mail on Sunday captured the final seconds of her reaching for Avinatan and shouting at her captors: ‘Don’t kill me!’
Her mother, who had stage four cancer, feared she would not live long enough to see her daughter again. She begged Hamas to release her and the Israeli and American governments to bring her home.
After finally being reunited with her in June, Liora “spent her last days with her daughter Noa, who returned from captivity, and her immediate family,” the hospital where she was being treated said in a statement after her death was announced.
On June 8, Israeli forces freed Noa and three other hostages after 245 days in the Gaza Strip, the largest and most successful rescue operation of the war.
Noa Argamani was brought to Gaza from the Nova Music Festival on October 7
Noa was led to a car by her rescuers before being pulled out of Gaza in a military helicopter and safely returned to a hospital in Ramat Gan.
Noa was led to a car by her rescuers before being pulled out of Gaza in a military helicopter and safely returned to a hospital in Ramat Gan, Israel.
Three commandos from Yamam, Israel’s national counterterrorism unit, who were involved in the rescue operation, said the first thing Noa did when she was rescued was ask about her mother.
In an interview with the Israeli magazine Walla, one of the commandos said: ‘Her first question was whether her mother was still alive. I said yes.
“She looked at us from left to right and asked us again if we were sure. We said yes, ‘that’s why we came, to take you back to your mother.'”
Despite the unimaginable trauma she endured from 245 days of captivity before losing her mother to brain cancer last month, Noa is fighting with all her might for the release of Avinatan and the other hostages.
She recently traveled to Washington DC with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to pressure politicians to work toward an agreement.