The first words of rescued hostage Noa Argamani were: “Is my mother still alive?”, one of her rescuers has reported.
Speaking on Israeli army radio channel Galatz in their first interview since their daring rescue mission last Saturday, a member of the rescue unit said: “The first question she asked was, ‘Is my mother still alive?’ I said, ‘Yes.’ She looked at everyone and then she asked: ‘Are you sure?’ We said: ‘Yes, Noa. We’re here to bring you back to your mother.’”
Noa, 26, was rescued along with 21-year-old Almog Meir Jan, Andrey Kozlov, 27 and Shlomi Ziv, 40, who were abducted from the Nova Festival on October 7.
They were being held in two separate buildings in the area of the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza.
According to an article in the Daily Mail, in the interview, one of the rescuers said they told Noa: “’Noa, we’re here to save you. We’re here to bring you home.’”
“She was very frightened, very scared, but she co-operated. She was barefooted. One of the fighters put her on his back and then put her down in the car.”
The vehicle then tried to reach the beach, where a helicopter was due to evacuate them, but the car got stuck when it came under fire from terrorists.
After fighting off the terrorists, the car managed to reach the helicopter.
“In the car she was still in shock. She still didn’t understand what was going on and then she said: ‘I’m still a little scared of the road,’” the rescuer told the radio.
“But at least we understood that she was already communicating with us in a good way. One of the fighters also gave her a piece of candy to try and reduce her stress.”
Since being freed, Noa has been spending time with her mother, Liora, 61, who has stage four brain cancer.
While her daughter was in captivity, Liora made a series of appeals to see her daughter, including one to President Biden, telling him: “My time is counted between life and death. I want to see her one more time. Talk to her one more time.”
Liora Argamani, who is suffering from stage four brain cancer, appealed to President Biden and the Red Cross for her daughter Noa to be released (Photo: Screenshot)
The rescue operation, conducted by Yamam, Shin Bet and the IDF, has been renamed “Operation Arnon,” after Arnon Zmora, one of the soldiers from the rescue unit, who was killed rescuing the three men who were held 200 metres from Noa.