‘Noa’s mother is very sick. I fear they’ll never see each other again’
Her abduction by Hamas terrorists shocked the world. Now her father tells the MoS of his great dread
TO LEARN their daughter was missing was hard enough to bear. To later watch a video of Hamas terrorists abducting her on a motorbike brought bone-chilling dread.
And for Noa Argamani’s parents, the fear is only intensified by the possibility their daughter will not be reunited with her family before her mother, Liora, loses her battle with brain cancer.
Noa, 26, an only child, was snatched at the Supernova music festival during the Hamas incursion of Israel on October 7 and filmed begging for her life on the back of the bike, screaming ‘Don’t kill me!’
The Mail on Sunday covered Noa’s story on October 8 and our front page showed her driven off by gunmen.
Earlier that day she sent a message to her father, Yaacov, and mother, assuring them she was fine and would call later. But when they heard nothing more, Yaacov began checking hospitals.
Yaacov told the MoS: ‘Later on I got a phone call from Noa’s friend saying he saw a video of her being taken on a motorbike towards Gaza.
‘But, you know, a father doesn’t want to believe. I thought maybe it
The doctors do not have much hope... it is a really hard time for our family
was a blurry video. I hoped it was. I hoped it wasn’t really her.’
His voice breaking, he added: ‘I watched the video and I saw right away it was Noa. She was scared, petrified, and so was her boyfriend. A video like that of your daughter breaks someone, especially when my wife is in the state she is in.
‘I don’t even have the words to explain to you what we are going through. I am lucky to have my family around me to surround me in love but I sleep alone with my thoughts which drown me.’
Speaking from his wife’s bedside at a hospital in Tel Aviv, Yaacov said his worst fear is that Noa and her mother will never see each other again.
‘My wife is not in the best place, the doctors do not have much hope for her,’ he said. ‘It is a really hard time for us as a family and we are trying to get through it.’
His daughter, from Beersheba in southern Israel, shouldered a lot of the responsibility for her mother’s care, arranging her treatment. Liora’s health has deteriorated since her daughter’s abduction.
Noa was with her boyfriend, Avi Natan, when Hamas stormed the festival, massacring 260 revellers.
‘I hope that Noa will be freed from Gaza to see her mother before it’s too late,’ said Yaacov.
Yaacov and Liora were woken at 6.30am on October 7 to sirens warning of incoming rockets.
‘At first I told my wife it was a mistake, but then there was another one and another one. I went to see if my daughter and her boyfriend, Avi, were still in their room and they weren’t. I called them and called them but they did not answer.
Eventually we got a message “We are OK, we will contact you later”.’
Our front page showing her driven off by gunmen later featured prominently in Oscar-winning Israeli director and screenwriter Ari Folman’s powerful film of hostages’ relatives sharing stories of their loved ones, which aimed to get those held in Gaza released.
Yaacov said: ‘Later on I saw another video where she was sitting
in a room in what is probably Gaza, drinking water. She looked OK. I believe they are looking after her.’
A week later Liora was taken to hospital under the strain of it all. Yaacov says he has not slept since.
He said: ‘The night isn’t night. You spend your days checking to see if there is any news, any information.’
A fortnight ago Noa’s family and friends tried to mark her 26th birthday. Her father said: ‘We sang happy birthday.
‘But you are distraught. You celebrate the birthday of your daughter but she isn’t there, only her photo. What kind of birthday is that?’
He draws some comfort from her strength of character. ‘Listen, I know Noa, how she always gives others strength.
‘I believe that with her internal strength she is strong there. We sit here and I hear stories about her from her friends and I learn things I didn’t know about her...’ his voice trails away. Composing himself, he goes on: ‘Noa is a very happy child. She is always with friends.
‘Before university she travelled and lived a good life. Recently I watched videos of Noa being happy. She loves peace, She gave all of herself to university [she is studying data engineering].
‘She would study until 4am. I hear from friends of hers who travelled together in South America and Mexico. When she had a mission she completed it and gave it her all.’ Yaacov insists he is not ‘a political man’, but he added: ‘I believe that by dialogue we can have good results, not by killing on both sides. ‘I want everyone to unite, from all the other countries, for peace, quiet and harmony.
‘It’s so unfortunate, all the deaths, they don’t add anything for us or for them.’