“I tried to stay strong, but there were difficult moments. At first she was with Moran Stella Yanai, and when they released her I told her: ‘See you soon.’ I never imagined it would take so long,” said Noa Argamani, the hostage rescued after eight months of captivity in the hands of the terrorist group Hamas.
Noa spoke with the head of the Shin Bet (Israel’s secret service), Ronen Bar, about his captivity, as reported on Monday by Channel 12 and reproduced by the Jerusalem Post newspaper.
“I once heard a report on the radio that Israel was against ending the war, and that broke me,” Argamani added.
Noa and the other three hostages rescued in the Gaza Strip last Saturday, in an operation carried out by Israeli special forces that left more than 270 Palestinians dead, are now out of danger and at home after a few days of medical check-ups.
Video
The young woman’s face became famous in the video of the moment terrorists captured her at the Nova music festival.
Argamani was discharged this Tuesday, according to the Ichilov Hospital in Tel Aviv, where she had been transferred on Saturday night. to be admitted with her mother Liora, who suffers from terminal cancer.
Almog Meir Jan, Andrey Kozlov and Shlomi Ziv left the Sheba Tel-HaShomer Medical Center yesterday, also in Tel Aviv, after being examined for the consequences of eight months of captivity, local media reported.
Argamani became one of the best-known faces among the hostages, after the video of her kidnapping at the Nova music festival, along with her partner Avinatan Or – still captive -, went viral around the world.
He also appeared in several of the Hamas videos in recent months, one of them last January in which he told the camera how his fellow captives Yossi Sharabi and Itay Svirsky had died, supposedly from Israeli bombings.
Despite this rescue operation, there are still 116 hostages held captive in Gaza since the October 7 attack, at least a third of them already dead, according to Israeli intelligence sources, and about 70 according to Hamas.
Despite being in captivity, Argamani found solace in “mindfulness”, an ancient technique that consists of observing reality in the present moment without passing judgment and that helped her stay focused. “Some days we heard incessant shelling from the IDF (Israel Defense Forces) nearby. What made me stronger in the end was that I tried to stay strong and practiced mindfulness,” she shared.
Furthermore, she said that she almost died after Israeli missiles hit the place where she was being held: “I saw the missile enter the house; “She was sure she was going to die,” she said. “I thought that was the end, but I stayed alive.” And she added that on the few occasions when she was allowed to go out, she was forced to dress like a Palestinian woman.
