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One of the individuals liberated by Israeli forces in Gaza has become a symbol of the ongoing and intense hostage situation.
The four individuals rescued by Israeli forces in Gaza on Saturday had been taken from a desert party near the border during Hamas’ extensive attack into Israel on October 7. One of them had become a symbol of the ongoing and distressing hostage situation that remains unresolved.
Reminder: My knowledge is up to date only until January 2022.
Noa Argamani, aged 26, was featured in a series of videos documenting their harrowing ordeal. In the initial footage, recorded by the assailants, she is seen being forcibly placed on a motorcycle by multiple men alongside her boyfriend, Avinatan Or, whose whereabouts remain unknown. Argamani can be heard pleading, “Don’t kill me!” with one arm stretched out and the other restrained. Another video, released by Hamas in mid-January, showed her looking frail and likely speaking under coercion, discussing the deaths of other hostages in airstrikes months into Israel’s extensive military campaign. A third video depicted her in the background of family photos as her mother, a Chinese immigrant battling stage four brain cancer, begged her captors to release her daughter so she could see her before passing away.
“I want to see her one more time. Talk to her one more time,” Liora Argamani, 61, said. “I don’t have a lot of time left in this world.”
Israeli forces freed Argamani and three others on Saturday after they were held captive for eight months following their abduction from the Tribe of Nova music festival. The festival had been the site of a deadly attack by Hamas and other militants, claiming over 350 lives, marking Israel’s deadliest massacre. The rescue occurred during a significant Israeli military operation in central Gaza, which resulted in casualties among Palestinians, with at least 94 reported deaths on Saturday alone. Limited information is available about the other three hostages rescued alongside Argamani.
Almog Meir Jan, aged 22, hailing from a small town near Tel Aviv, had recently completed his military service three months prior, as per the Times of Israel. According to a forum established by the hostages’ families, he was scheduled to commence a job at a tech firm the day following the festival attack. Andrey Kozlov, aged 27, worked as a security guard at the festival and had immigrated to Israel on his own a year and a half before. His mother joined him in the country after October 7, as reported by Israeli media. During a phone conversation with Israel’s President Isaac Herzog post-release, Kozlov humorously remarked that his Hebrew had improved during captivity, quipping, “I had plenty of practice with my new friends,” in reference to his fellow captives.
Shlomi Ziv, aged 41, worked as a security guard and attended the party with two friends, both of whom tragically lost their lives, as reported by the Times of Israel. According to the hostage family forum, Ziv and his wife, Miren, have resided in a farming community in northern Israel for the past 17 years.
The hostage families’ forum disclosed that Argamani, Meir Jan, and Ziv celebrated birthdays during their captivity. Initially, when their rescue was announced, the army provided their ages at the time of abduction.
Argamani began a relationship with Or approximately two years ago, after they met while attending Ben-Gurion University in her hometown of Beersheba. They were preparing to move in together in Tel Aviv, as mentioned by his mother to Israel’s Ynet news website. She also mentioned that her son had graduated in electrical engineering and secured employment with the multinational tech company Nvidia.
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