They beat me all over my body, says Israeli Noa Argamani held by Hamas

New Delhi:

Noa Argamani, an Israeli woman kidnapped by Hamas on October 7, said she was beaten and had her hair cut while in Hamas captivity.

“They beat me all over my body. No one came to save me,” she told the media.

Earlier this week, Ms. Argamani recounted her ordeal during a meeting with diplomats from Israel and the G7 nations in Tokyo.

The 26-year-old was among hundreds of people kidnapped by Hamas from the Nova music festival during the October 7 attacks.

She was released by Israeli special forces in a raid on the Nuseirat refugee camp in Gaza on June 8. Along with her, three others were released: Almog Meir Gan, 22, Andrei Kozlov, 27, and Shlomi Ziv, 41, according to AFP.

On a visit to Japan with her father, Ms. Argamani recalled the time she was held captive by Hamas militants. “Every night I would fall asleep and think, ‘This might be the last night of my life,’” she said.

Until she was rescued by Israeli authorities, Ms. Argamani “could not believe I was still alive.”

“It’s a miracle that I survived October 7, I survived this bombing, and I survived the rescue operation,” she told AFP.

Earlier, a video went viral showing Ms Argamani screaming “don’t kill me” on the back of a motorbike. The video also showed her boyfriend – Avinatan Or, an engineer – being taken away separately. However, she said she knew nothing about it until she was released.

“Avinathan, my friend, is still out there, and we need to get them back before it’s too late,” she said.

The Israeli military said Tuesday it had recovered the bodies of six hostages from tunnels in southern Gaza. Hamas had taken some 251 hostages on October 7 of last year. Of those, 105, including 34 dead, remain in Gaza, according to the Israeli military.

About 1,200 people in Israel, most of them civilians, were killed in the October 7 attack. Over the past 10 months, Israel has been bombing Gaza relentlessly, killing more than 40,000 Palestinians, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.

In Gaza, Israeli air strikes have destroyed towns, neighborhoods, hospitals and schools, internally displacing a large majority of the tiny strip’s 2.1 million people.