Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang welcomes return of employee held in Gaza for two years
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Mr Avinatan Or was kidnapped during the deadly Oct 7, 2023 attack by Hamas and taken to Gaza.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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JERUSALEM – Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang welcomed Mr Avinatan Or from “two unimaginable years in Hamas captivity” in Gaza, saying a number of the chip giant’s families had suffered losses during the war.
An electrical engineer at Nvidia in Israel, 32-year-old Or was kidnapped from the Nova music festival on Oct 7, 2023 along with 250 others including his girlfriend, Noa Argamani, whose desperate cries on the back of a motorcycle became one of the most haunting images of the Hamas attack.
“Avinatan – welcome home. Your safe return brings profound relief and joy to the entire Nvidia. We are here for you and for your family as you begin this next chapter of healing,” Mr Huang wrote in a letter sent to Nvidia employees and seen by Reuters.
Mr Or was released on Oct 13 after 738 days in captivity by Hamas, in a US-brokered deal to end the two-year war in Gaza under which Israel is now pushing for the return of the bodies of dead hostages.
Video footage showed Mr Or arriving at Beilinson Hospital near Tel Aviv after his release, accompanied by his family and by Ms Argamani, who spent 246 days in Gaza and was rescued by Israeli soldiers.
Citing testimonies from the hostages and initial medical reports, Israeli media said Mr Or was starved and lost up to 40 per cent of his body weight. He was completely isolated and did not see other hostages.
Mr Huang wrote that “night after night” Nvidia employees had stood in a vigil with Mr Or’s mother Ditza. He noted that for two years, thousands of Nvidia employees in Israel served in the military.
“Many have faced immense pain, loss, and uncertainty. Some have lost family members or loved ones,” he said. “The losses to our Jewish, Druze, and Arab families alike have been immense.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited Mr Or and four other former hostages at the hospital on Oct 15.
Nvidia, a leading designer of high-end artificial intelligence chips, entered Israel in 2020, and it is planning to expand there. It is located in Yokne’am, a hub for tech companies near Haifa. REUTERS
