"I knew that it was the IDF because I never felt that hug during all the time that I was by myself… he was protecting me with his own body.
“In that moment, I knew that I was safe.”
This was Noa Argamani recalling the moment she was held by an Israeli soldier on the rescue mission that brought her back from Gaza after 246 days in captivity.
Speaking last night in London, the Ben Gurion University student revealed that it was only when she was held in her rescuer’s embrace that she truly believed she was safe.
Moments earlier, hearing Hebrew voices and shooting inside the building where she was held, she still feared it could have been a deception. Her captors had told her IDF soldier Gilad Shalit had been lured out of his tank by Hebrew voices before being held captive by Hamas for five years.
Speaking to an audience in St John’s Wood on Thursday evening, she said that while in captivity she was unable to believe the rescue mission would take place: “I never thought that something like that could happen.”
Footage shows the moment Noa Argamani was seized by Hamas and taken to Gaza on October 7 (Photo: Daily Mail)[Missing Credit]
Then came the moment her IDF rescuers suddenly arrived: “It was a typical normal day in captivity, even though they were shooting inside the house.”
When soldiers entered the room, they addressed her: “Noa, we're here to bring you home now.”
Even then, she was unsure she could trust them, but she followed instructions to stand and move. “You do whatever they tell you to do – terrorist or the IDF, you have no control.”
Recognition came moments later.
“Minutes after that when I saw the Star of David on the uniforms, and how they were full of tears, hugging me and protecting me with their own body.”
Noa Argamani in London (Yoav Pichersky)[Missing Credit]
It was later in hospital in Israel that Argamani learned the cost of her rescue.
Arnon Zmora, a soldier involved in the operation, had been killed and Argamani has since come to know his family.
“They tell me about that moment that they were so proud, to be in the hospital and see all the families so happy and on the other hand, her son is there and he's dying.”
The contrast, she said, “represented Israel”.
“Every joy that we have in life is full of grief as well,” she said.
“This is why we celebrate Independence Day the day after Memorial Day, and this is why even though we have a war and everybody is in the shelters, we celebrate Purim parties. This is something in the Israeli identity - everybody wants to destroy us, but we will celebrate each day and we will go forward and we will grow.”
Argamani said that in captivity she used mindfulness to endure the torture of uncertainty and fear.
Jonathan Sacerdoti and Noa Argamani at St John's Wood United Synagogue (Yoav Pichersky)[Missing Credit]
“One of the things was really hard that you don't know what to expect. Today, I don't know if I will have food, so I keep some food on the side. I don't know if tomorrow they will bring me water. You just need to survive each moment.
“We just had the connection between us and God and we were praying for the best. But we have no control in our normal life.”
She described adopting a mindset shaped by her captors. They did not fear death – “To know that if your death would be right now, or tomorrow” – and that was helpful. “They’re living in the present. They don’t think about tomorrow.”
Faith became central. “I found myself talking talking to God every day. And I start just to be grateful for the thing that I had.
“When you don't have a lot of things, you can collect them in one hand and say thank you for the T-shirt that I have, for the blanket that I have, for the socks that I have, for the a little bit water that I have.”
At first, she struggled to ask for more. “I felt that like I need to be humble and to be grateful for the thing that I have.”
But over time, she allowed herself hope, praying she would be freed before her father’s birthday. Her rescue came on that exact date.
Argamani’s mother, Liora, had terminal cancer and made emotional pleas for her daughter’s release. Before the attacks, they had planned to attend a hospital appointment together on October 8.
Liora Argamani appealed to President Biden and the Red Cross for her daughter Noa to be released (Photo: Screenshot)[Missing Credit]
In captivity, her mother was “everything I thought about,” she said. Cut off from information, she feared she would not be released in time.
Her first question after being rescued was: “Is my mother still alive?”
Argamani did see her mother again; she died three weeks later.
“To come back home and to see my mother again was everything that I wished for every single day.”
Had she not been rescued when she was, she believes she would have been released in a ceasefire deal, five months after her mother’s death.
“To be in that moment, to hug her again, to know that she knows that I'm safe at home and alive, then something that is a present.”
Noa Argamani and her late mother Liora[Missing Credit]
She also spoke of those she encountered in captivity.
Argamani was initially held with Emily Hand, then eight, and Hila Rotem Shoshani, aged 12, who had been taken wearing Disney pyjamas and carrying toys when they were kidnapped from Kibbutz Be’eri. Together, they prayed for the safety of their families, including Emily’s Dublin-born father, Tom, whose fate they did not know.
After the children were released in a deal, Argamani spent months with Yossi Sharabi, 53, and Itay Svirsky, 38.
In January 2024, the building where they were being held was struck.
“Our house got shot by the air force and we got stuck under the rubble,” she said. “We couldn't move, we couldn't breathe until one of the terrorists was able to rescue me under the rubble.”
By the time help reached Sharabi, it was too late. “We tried our best, I heard him screaming but I screamed too. In that moment I lost one of my dearest friends.”
She and Svirsky were moved to another location, but the violence continued. “Two days after that, [a terrorist] executed Itay in front of my eyes. In those two days, I lost two of my best friends.”
For the remaining months, she was alone. “Every time that I looked about the mat next to me and knew that they were supposed to be next to me and they're no longer with me.”
Argamani was in the UK for the first time since her release.
In an emotional conversation with journalist and JC columnist Jonathan Sacerdoti at an event organised by the Ben Gurion University Foundation, hundreds packed the shul and gave Argamani several standing ovations.
Welcomed by Chief Rabbi Sir Ephraim Mirvis and leaders from Ben Gurion University in the Negev, Argamani told the crowd that returning to her undergraduate studies at Ben Gurion was among her first priorities after her release.
Israeli Noa Argamani, speaks during a meeting with G7 embassy representatives during a visit to Tokyo (Image: Getty)AFP via Getty Images
“Going back to university was one of the first things I wanted to do because it reminds me who I am,” she said, explaining how much she enjoys computer programming. “To come back to my hobbies, to the thing that I love to do, reminds me who I was before.”
But her ambitions for life have changed since before October 7.
Argamni had no idea that her image had circulated globally on the day of the October 7 attacks until after her release, but found herself released and internationally recognised.
Since then, she has travelled internationally to campaign for the remaining hostages, including her boyfriend, Ben Gurion alumnus Avinatan Or, who was released in October 2025 in a ceasefire deal.
“I use that stage to talk about those people that are no longer with us and to mention the people that suffer in Israel and all the soldiers with PTSD,” she said of her newfound fame.
Her efforts took her to the US, where she addressed the United Nations and President Donald Trump.
Noa Argamani and Avinatan Or are reunited after his release (Photo: IDF)[Missing Credit]
“There were more chances that I would meet the President in Florida and not in Be'er Sheva,” she said, explaining that she had made the trip to the US with Benjamin Netanyahu just one week after her mother’s death.
Members of the administration hosted her for Shabbat dinners and “treated me as family”.
Howard Lutnik, who survived 9/11, “is a survivor and saw me as his family, and he did everything just to help us. I am really grateful for those people.”
Looking ahead, Argamani hopes for a peaceful future for Israel and the region, and wants to one day do deals with Arab states.
To reach a point where she has “no guilt for anybody”, she said, would be real victory.
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