By Matthew Sedacca | New York Post
Noa Argamani, who came to symbolize Hamas’ savage attack on the Jewish state after video of her abduction went viral, received a tearful embrace from her father following her rescue Saturday by Israeli forces in Gaza.
Argamani, a Chinese-born Israeli citizen, was seen in disturbing footage screaming as she was kidnapped and dragged off by Hamas terrorists to Gaza during their cowardly Oct. 7 rampage on the Jewish state.
She was rescued Saturday from the home of a well-off Gaza family, whom she had to convince to let her bathe and seldom saw daylight, the former captive told her family, per Channel 12. She also learned some Arabic from the family, and the father reportedly told her that she “was blessed by God” to be in their hands.
Following Argamani’s harrowing eight months in Hamas’ clutches, the 26-year-old hugged and kissed her father, Yakov, when the pair reunited, footage shared on social media showed.
The father-daughter pair were also caught on camera smiling and sharing a pair of Coca Colas in a hospital room in the Sheba Medical Center near Tel Aviv.
The elder Argamani said his daughter appeared to be “fine” and revealed his birthday coincided with the day of her rescue.
“See what a gift I received for my birthday,” Yakov said in a statement.
He also called on continuing all efforts to bring the remaining hostages home.
“We must make every effort, in every way possible, to bring them here to Israel, to their families,” Argamani said
“I am so happy to be here,” Argamani said during a phone call with Israeli President Isaac Herzog, footage of which was released. “Thank you for everything, thank you for this moment.”
“I am very moved,” she said on another call, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. “I haven’t heard Hebrew for so long,” according to a separate video of their chat.
Argamani later reunited with her mother, Liora, who is battling stage four brain cancer and had publicly stated she was praying to see her daughter again, Haaretz reported.
In December, Liora Argamani pleaded to President Biden to secure her daughter’s freedom so that she might be able to see her one more time.
“I am terminally ill with stage 4 brain cancer,” she wrote him in a letter. “All that’s running through my mind before I part ways with my family forever is the chance to hug my daughter, my only child, one last time.”
Israeli troops rescued Argamani, along with three other hostages kidnapped from the Supernova music festival, as part of a “complex mission” targeting a pair of Hamas-run buildings in central Gaza’s Nuseirat refugee camp, according to a military spokesman.
One of Argamani’s relatives said Israeli forces pounded on the door of the building where she was being held hostage and yelled they were rescuing her.
“She told me a little. It was 10 a.m. and they banged on the door and shouted ‘It’s the IDF and we’ve come to rescue you,’” Asaf Shaibi told reporters, according to the Times of Israel.
“She is strong,” he says.
Argamani, who appeared on The Post’s cover after the terrorists’ cowardly Oct. 7 attack on southern Israel, became a tragic poster child for the horrors Israelis faced during the bloody rampage that killed 1,200 people, with another 250 kidnapped.482
The other hostages rescued during the Israeli raid, which involved the Israeli Defense Force, Shin Bet and counterterrorism police officers, were Almog Meir Jan, 21, Andrey Kozlov, 27, and Shlomi Ziv, 40.
Argamani’s boyfriend, Avinatan Or, was also carted off to Gaza during the brutal kidnapping and is believed to be one of the 116 still held captive by Hamas, many of whom are presumed to be dead.
With Post wires
