TEL AVIV – Videos verified by The New York Times show a woman – an attendee at a music festival that fliers said celebrated “free love” – being kidnapped by what appear to be militants last Saturday during a wave of ground incursions into Israel from Gaza.
The footage, which was posted to Telegram, shows a group of men driving away on a motorcycle with Ms Noa Argamani, 25, in their custody. The video then pans to another group of militants holding her boyfriend, Mr Avinatan Or, with an arm pinned behind his back.
A family member of Ms Argamani confirmed to the Times that the video shows the couple.
Mr Or’s brother Moshe also shared screenshots of the video on Instagram, identifying both his brother and Ms Argamani.
The weekend-long event, billed as a “psy trance music festival”, was attended by about 3,500 people near Re’im, Israel, 4.8km from the border with Gaza. Israeli security officials said up to 109 people were believed to have been killed at the festival.
The festival’s organiser, Mr Nimrod Arnin, told the Times that at about 6.30am local time last Saturday, a rocket barrage from Gaza began, prompting an evacuation of the festival. Videos show concertgoers walking to their cars as puffs of black smoke rise in the sky.
Militants soon swept into the area, turning what had been a calm evacuation into a scene of panic and sprinting. Videos show attendees fleeing south over fields and into a valley and a wooded area.
Mr Or and Ms Argamani had been trying to hide from the militants before being taken hostage. According to WhatsApp messages posted on Facebook, Mr Or shared his location with a friend and pleaded for Israeli soldiers to come rescue them.
“Me and Noa are hiding here,” Mr Or wrote. “Tell them there’s a gang of 20 men that are finding people who are hiding and lynching them.” He stopped responding at around 10am local time, the messages show.
Mr Ravid Ohad, Ms Argamani’s cousin, told the Times that family members were able to trace her location to Gaza, as of about noon last Saturday, using the Find My iPhone application, but have not received further information about her location or her captors.
“It’s still not too late to save my brother and Noa,” wrote Mr Moshe Or in an Instagram post. “Israel state must act! Fast!”
Another video that surfaced online last Saturday showed Ms Argamani purportedly in captivity in Gaza wearing the same clothes she had on when she was abducted. A family member confirmed it was her in the video. The Times could not independently verify her location.
Appeals posted on social media asked people who attended the festival to report sightings of loved ones who have been out of touch since the attack.
In a statement posted on Instagram, the festival organisers said they were doing “everything in their power to assist the security forces”.
They added that festival staff are carrying out “scans and searches to locate the missing”. NYTIMES
