The IDF freed Israeli Noa Argamani, captured by Hamas militants in October 2023
The IDF announced the release of several hostages taken by Hamas militants in October 2023 during an attack on border areas. According to the statement, as a result of the special operation, four people were found alive and rescued, who were taken by terrorists to the Gaza Strip during an attack on a music festival.
According to the IDF statement, the freed hostages are now in the hospital for examination.
< p>It is known that Shlomi Ziv (40 years old), Almog Meir (21 years old), 27-year-old Andrei Kozlov, who has Russian citizenship, and 25-year-old Noa Argamani were rescued.
On the morning of October 7, Argamani was among those hostages whose identities were quickly established. The girl was caught in a video that militants filmed during an attack on a music festival. The footage showed how several militants forcibly put her on a motorcycle and drove away, while she tried to break free and called for help from her friend – a man with twisted arms was led along the side of the road.
In May of this year, Hamas published a video of Arghamani, in which the girl spoke a text saying that in a building in the Gaza Strip, where she was being held with others hostages, an Israeli strike was allegedly carried out, which led to casualties.
On the day of the Hamas attack, several other videos of brutality against women quickly spread across social media. Along with Arghamani, the identity of another young hostage, 22-year-old Shani Luk, was revealed. In those shots, the girl was stripped down to her underwear and lying unconscious in the back of a pickup truck with her legs twisted unnaturally.
Shani Luk
For several weeks, Luk's relatives tried to ask the militants to allow them to take the girl home. In late October, the hostage's death was confirmed. Israeli President Isaac Herzog said Luk's remains were found in one of the underground tunnels and that she had been killed by beheading.