Freed hostage Noa Argamani shared a message of hope yesterday as she flew back to Israel to await her boyfriend’s release from captivity.
The 27-year-old, who has campaigned to secure Avinatan Or’s freedom, posted on social media: ‘It’s time to come home.’
She became the face of the October 7 attack after a powerful Mail on Sunday front page caught her final moments with Avinatan before they were separated.
Last week, she pledged to dedicate her ‘life to bring my partner, Avinatan, and all the hostages back home’ in a speech to political leaders in Washington.
Just days later, Hamas agreed to Donald Trump‘s peace plan, prompting her scramble back to Israel ahead of the release of 20 hostages, including her boyfriend.
She is now waiting anxiously with three other women who were also kidnapped by Hamas to be reunited with their partners.
Noa and Avinatan – whom friends call ‘Romeo and Juliet’ – are expected to be reunited imminently.
In a harrowing image that went viral, millions across the world saw her being dragged away from Avinatan, 32, and driven off on a motorbike as she begged the terrorists not to harm him.
Freed hostage Noa Argamani shared a message of hope on social medai as she flew back to Israel to await the release her boyfriend Avinatan Or: ‘It’s time to come home’
Noa became the face of the October 7 attack after a powerful Mail on Sunday front page caught her final moments with Avinatan before they were separated
She later revealed that she feared every minute that her guards might ‘lose control and kill me’, and declared heartbreakingly: ‘I’m not the same person that I used to be.’
She said: ‘I saw it happen in front of my eyes, two of my friends that were with me since October 7 were murdered in captivity.
‘Yossi Sharabi and Itay Svirsky were brutally murdered and executed and I survived.
‘I asked about Avinatan everywhere. I didn’t know if he was murdered or kidnapped, and I was afraid to know the answer.’
Last week, on the second anniversary of the attack, she told US Cabinet members and senior White House officials: ‘Avinatan and I came to the Nova music festival just to celebrate our life.
‘We found ourselves in the darkest tunnels of Gaza. I cannot even begin to describe those terrible pictures.
Noa Argamani embraced her father, Yakov Argamani, after she was rescued by Israeli forces and brought back to Israel last June
‘I dedicate my life to bring my partner, Avinatan, and all the hostages back home.’
Arbel Yehoud, 29, who joined Noa in Washington, will welcome her boyfriend Ariel Cunio, 27, while Ilana Gritzewsky, 32, will be reunited with fiance Matan Zangauker, 25.
Meanwhile, Sharon Aloni Cunio is waiting for her husband – and Ariel’s brother – David, 35.
Sharon was held with their twin five-year-old girls, who were separated from her in captivity, before they were all released in November 2023.
