Israeli hostage Noa Argamani rescued in time to see her terminally ill mother
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Ms Noa Argamani speaking on the phone while surrounded by loved ones, after being rescued from Gaza on June 8, along with three other hostages.
PHOTO: REUTERS
TEL AVIV - Hours after being rescued from eight months captivity in Gaza, freed Israeli hostage Noa Argamani arrived at a hospital in Tel Aviv to see her terminally ill mother.
Ms Argamani, 26, was one of the most recognised faces among the hostages abducted by Hamas on Oct 7.
Harrowing footage of her being taken into Gaza on the back of a motorcycle, pleading for her life and reaching desperately towards her boyfriend being marched alongside her on foot, circulated across the globe.
Ms Argamani’s boyfriend Avinatan Or is still in captivity.
Ms Argamani was rescued on June 8, along with three other hostages, in an operation by Israeli special forces from an apartment building in central Gaza.
“I’m so happy to be here,” she said, in a phone call with Israeli President Isaac Herzog upon her return, smiling and surrounded by friends and family.
She was later met with cheers upon arrival at Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Centre where her mother Liora is being treated for terminal brain cancer.
Back in October, shortly after her daughter was abducted from a music festival-turned-killing field in southern Israel, Liora, sitting in a wheelchair, was asked in an interview with a local television station how she imagined their reunion.
“At least to be able to hug her,” she answered.
The hospital’s chief executive, Mr Ronni Gamzu, said the mother’s condition was “complicated and tough”.
He said Ms Argamani was able to communicate with her mother, who they believe understood that her daughter had come home.
“For the last eight months, we are trying to keep her in a status that she can communicate,” Mr Gamzu said.
Ms Argamani’s father Yaakov first met her after a military helicopter carried her back to Israel.
“Today is my birthday, and a gift like this I never believed I would get,” he said.
More than 360 people were killed during the rampage at the Nova dance festival, and another 40 were taken hostage by Hamas, according to Israeli tallies.
Nearby the hospital in central Tel Aviv, at what has become known as hostage square, thousands of Israelis rallied to commemorate the rescue of the four hostages and to demand the release of more than 115 hostages who remain in Gaza. REUTERS
Rescued hostage Noa Argamani embracing her father, Mr Yakov Argamani, on June 8, in Israel.
