As relief and grief flow from the release of the last living Israeli hostages from captivity in Gaza,
the reunion of former hostages Noa Argamani and Avinatan Or symbolically completes the circle of the hostage crisis for a watching public.
The 32-year-old Or, freed Monday after two years in captivity as part of a ceasefire deal, is seen in Israeli government photos being led to a waiting Argamani, 28, who had herself been rescued from captivity in Gaza last year by Israeli special forces.
Their embrace and kisses, their joy, contrast starkly to the harrowing images of their last moment together — two years earlier when they were abducted by Hamas during the October 7, 2023, attacks on Israel.
One of the first galvanizing visuals of the October 7 attacks was video of Argamani, a university student, being kidnapped from the Nova music festival in southern Israel, which was the site of the deadliest attack that day. The video, apparently from a body-worn camera on a Hamas terrorist, was seen around the world after the attack.
In the video she appears frightened and distraught on a motorcycle, held between two captors, her arms outstretched towards her boyfriend, Or, who was also captured that day. She calls for help as the motorcycle races off towards Gaza and he is marched along by armed men on foot.
They had not seen each other since, until Monday.
Eight months after the attacks, when she was one of four hostages rescued in a deadly raid in Gaza, she became a symbol again, this time one of hope for the hostages and, to a degree, triumph as the crisis continued, as did growing casualties of war.
Once freed, Argamani campaigned for the release of the remaining hostages. She addressed the United Nations Security Council and met with U.S. President Donald Trump in the White House. She spoke out about the “total fear” and “living in a nightmare” as a hostage, appealing for help to free the remaining hostages.
In April she was named to Time magazine’s list of t
he 100 Most Influential People of 2025 for her outspoken advocacy.
Argamani spent 10 days in Canada in June advocating for the hostages on a speaking tour.
“You showered me with love and support,” she wrote of her trip, but she also chronicled Palestinian protesters blocking exits at an event in Windsor, Ont., and calling out “Hamas is coming.”
She replied: “Hamas came. Hamas kidnapped me. Hamas murdered my friends. But I won; I survived. Now, I speak for those who can’t. I’ll keep exposing Hamas’ crimes and fighting for the hostages’ release — including my partner, Avinatan.”
Or was one of 20 living hostages freed Monday in a ceasefire brokered by Trump that included the release of about 2,000 Palestinians detained by Israel.
“Two years passed since the last moment I saw Avinatan, the love of my life,” Argamani
. “Two years since the moment terrorists kidnapped us, put me on a motorcycle, and tore me away from Avinatan before the eyes of the entire world.
“I was held captive with children, women, and the elderly, while Avinatan was held alone,” she wrote. “I was mostly kept inside houses, while Avinatan was only in the tunnels. Hamas released videos and signs of life from me, while there was no information at all about Avinatan. I was held captive by Hamas for 246 days, while Avinatan was held for 738 days. I came back in a heroic rescue operation, and Avinatan returned in a deal.
“But both of us, against all odds, came home and were reunited!”
Or reportedly had little knowledge of what was going on during his two years as a hostage, and only found out that Argamani, along with Andrey Kozlov, Almog Meir and Shlomi Ziv, had been rescued 15 months earlier.
Israel’s Channel 12 reported that Or had been held in isolation in the central Gaza Strip as the war raged, and had no contact with any other hostage during his ordeal. A medical exam found he had lost between 30 per cent and 40 per cent of his body weight.
“I cannot put into words the range of emotions I felt when I saw him for the first time after so long,” Argamani wrote. “Each of us faced death countless times, and yet, after two years apart, we are finally taking our first steps together again in the State of Israel.”
She added: “At last, we can begin our healing together. The recovery will be long; we still haven’t truly processed what has happened here over these past two years. But we won. We won our personal war, and the war of all those who fought alongside us to reach this moment.”
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