Following her rescue by the Israeli army, new details have emerged about the conditions in which a 26-year-old woman, Noa Argamani, was held hostage in the Gaza Strip.
The Israeli news website ynet wrote on Monday that the young woman had been taken from flat to flat in the Gaza Strip by her captors following her abduction from the Nova music festival on October 7.
On Saturday, she and three other hostages were freed in a dramatic military operation. According to the army, there were fierce clashes with armed Palestinians. The Hamas-controlled health authority says 274 Palestinians were killed during the operation.
Argamani was held after her kidnapping with two male hostages who were later killed, the news site reported. One is believed to have died in an Israeli attack, while the other was murdered by the kidnappers.
Ynet reported that Argamani told her family that she had seen a rocket hit the house and was afraid for her life.
According to the reports, Argamani learnt Arabic well during her time as a hostage. As a result, she became a kind of “representative” of other female hostages with whom she was temporarily held.
Argamani, who Israeli sources say was freed from a flat belonging to Palestinian civilians in the refugee neighbourhood of Nuseirat, had to cook and wash dishes for the family.
Since her release after 246 days in captivity, Argamani has been intensively involved in caring for her mother in hospital, the news site continued. The woman, who comes from China, is terminally ill with a fourth-degree brain tumour.
In recent months, she had repeatedly asked to see her daughter again. On Sunday, Argamani was alone with her mother in the treatment room for two hours. Her aunts had also travelled from China to meet her.
The father had reported that at the first meeting on Saturday, the mother had hardly been able to respond to her daughter due to her weakening condition.
“I think she understood that Noa had been released,” the father said. “She just couldn’t tell her what she wanted to tell her for eight months.”
