(Top row, left to right) Noa Argamani, Almog Meir Jan, (bottom row, left to right) Andrey Kozlov and Shlomi Ziv were rescued in a special operation by the IDF, ISA and Israel Police from 2 separate locations in the heart of Nuseirat after being kidnapped by Hamas from the Nova music festival (credit: IDF). The Israel Defense Forces confirmed that “Noa Argamani (25), Almog Meir Jan (21), Andrey Kozlov (27), and Shlomi Ziv (40) were rescued in a special operation by the IDF, ISA [Shin Bet] and Israel Police from two separate locations in the heart of Nuseirat after being kidnapped by Hamas from the Nova music festival.” The IDF also confirmed that the rescued hostages “are in good medical condition and have been transferred to the ‘Sheba’ Tel-HaShomer Medical Center for further medical examinations.”
The operation took place at 11:00 AM local time, in what IDF Spokesperson Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari called a “complex rescue mission” that Israeli forces had spent weeks preparing for. Details of the rescue operation remain to be confirmed.
“While under fire, inside the buildings under fire, on the way out from Gaza, our forces rescued our hostages,” Hagari said. “Israeli forces have been preparing for this rescue mission for weeks. They underwent intensive training. They risk their lives to save the lives of our hostages. This is what we do in Israel. We risk our lives to save the lives of our hostages.”
On Oct. 7, 2023, video footage circulated around the world of Argamani being brutally pried away from her boyfriend Avinatan Or. Hamas terrorists on motorcycles scurried them away from the Nova festival site into captivity in Gaza as Argamani screamed, “don’t kill me.” Argamani and the other three freed hostages would remain for 246 days. Or is believed to still be in Hamas captivity.
Argamani’s mother Liora Argamani has stage four brain cancer and has pleaded publicly for her daughter’s return so they can have at least one final embrace. Argamani was reunited with her father Yaakov on a transport vehicle to Sheba Medical Center in the Ramat Gan district of Tel Aviv, where she is expected to reunite with her mother as well. Today is also Yaakov’s birthday.
Video is circulating of Argamani receiving a phone call from Israeli President Isaac Herzog.
“I embrace you in the name of the entire nation of Israel,” Herzog told Argamani as she held a phone and spoke to him using speakerphone.
Argamani replied, “I’m so happy to be here, thank you for everything. Thank you for this moment.”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also telephoned Argamani and asked how she is doing. “Very excited … I haven’t spoken Hebrew in a very long time,” Argamani told him.
One hundred-twenty hostages remain in Gaza.
“When we say that we will do everything to bring our hostages back home, we mean it,” IDF spokesman Hagari said. “We will not stop fighting for their freedom. Any other decent country in the world would do the same.”
This is a developing story.
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