Noa Argamani, the story of his rescue operation

Among the freed hostages, all kidnapped from the site of the Nova music festival, Noa Argamani had become, despite herself, one of the symbols of the massacre perpetrated by the terrorists. The whole world remembers the filmed kidnapping of this student from Ben Gurion University. Perched on a motorcycle, terrified, she is taken by force towards Gaza between two men wearing civilian clothes. Crossing the security barrier neutralized a few hours earlier, we see her screaming, her hands tied: “Don’t kill me! »

To free him, the Israeli army did not skimp on means

To free him, as well as three of his companions in misfortune, the Israeli army did not skimp on means. Prepared for a long time, this rescue mission was named “Summer Seeds”. According to the “New York Times”, American and British analysts present on Israeli territory provided information from drones and cyberspace to help locate the four hostages. On D-Day, the Shabak, the armed forces of the intelligence services and the Yamam, the police commando unit specializing in exfiltration in dangerous urban areas, took the risk of operating in broad daylight.

Disguised as Gazan refugees, the Israelis got into a truck and a car bearing Palestinian license plates. A decision was made to launch the operation simultaneously in two buildings separated by approximately 200 meters for fear that Hamas terrorists, informed of an intervention in one, would kill or exfiltrate the hostages held in the other. But one of the rescue vehicles, unmarked and registered in Gaza, remained stuck in the alleys of the camp where Hamas was calling on civilians to mass. The shooting to free it was intense, leading to numerous deaths by the Israeli forces’ own admission. An officer says he has not experienced “such a feeling of madness in the last eight months”.

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Bombings from the air force, fire from helicopters, the navy and drones: a deluge of fire suddenly fell on the Nousseirat camp, located in the middle of the Gaza Strip to cover the evacuation captives and the exit of troops caught under fire, those of the 98th Parachute Division, the infantry soldiers of Kfir, fighters of the 7th Brigade, the Givati ​​Patrol and the 13th Fleet. The Parachute Brigade Combat Team and members of the Special Forces transported the freed hostages to the helicopter drop-off point on the beach. As soon as they arrived on the scene, the rescue helicopters came under fire from surface-to-air missiles. The street where Noa Argamani, 26, Almog Meir Jan, 22, Andrey Kozlov, 27, and Shlomi Ziv, 41, were detained is now nothing more than a field of ruins.

If many gray areas remain, a few elements allow us to lift a corner of the veil. According to testimonies from Noa’s relatives, the four captives appear to have been held in “humane” conditions. The doctor Itay Pessach, responsible for examining and treating them, testified on CNN that the four hostages were “regularly beaten” and that their captivity “had a significant impact on their health”. All were housed with Palestinian families, whose apartments were guarded by armed Hamas men.

The most grueling and tense fights took place in the apartment where Almog, Andrey and Shlomi were held. Its owner, Abdullah Al-Jamal, was a contributor to the Palestinian Chronicle site and a contributor to the Qatari channel Al-Jazeera. According to the IDF and the Shin Bet, the journalist killed during the operation was undoubtedly a member of the terrorist organization. During the assault, officer Arnon Zamora, who entered first to lead his team, was mortally wounded by Hamas fire. The rescue mission has since been renamed Operation Arnon, in tribute to his heroism.

246 days of captivity

Noa would have been moved several times from one house to another since October 7, but always in the open air, never in tunnels, as she would have confided to her loved ones. Confined most of the time, she rarely saw the light during her 246 days of captivity. The house where she was rescued belonged, she said, to wealthy Gazans. The family patriarch reportedly told her that she “was blessed by God” to be detained in his home.

During her first period of captivity, she says food was scarce. Her daily life improved upon her arrival in this house, even though she was treated like a servant, forced to do household chores. “They opened my bedroom door without knocking to order me to go do the dishes,” she testifies.

Over the weeks, Noa learned a little Arabic to be able to communicate. She was given food whenever she wanted, but she had to ask to shower. The morning of her release, the young woman was washing dishes. Howls rang out. Running into the living room, she found herself face to face with masked men: “We are the IDF! » they shouted in Hebrew.

In shock, Noa took a while to understand what was happening. Until a soldier asked her if he could hoist her on his shoulder: “It was then,” she explains, “that I realized that I was being saved!” » A handful of hours later, back on Israeli territory, she runs to the bedside of her mother, Liora, at the Sourasky medical center (Ichilov hospital) in Tel Aviv. In the terminal phase of cancer, she is unconscious. Could she have felt the presence of this much-mourned girl whose return she never stopped hoping for?

Crowned with success, the operation which, according to Hamas, caused 274 deaths on the Palestinian side and hundreds of injuries could however have harmful consequences on the 116 other Israeli hostages. Masked by his red keffiyeh, Abou Obeida, shadow spokesperson for Hamas in Gaza, threatened on Telegram: “This operation represents a great danger for the enemy prisoners we are holding. It will have a devastating impact on their living conditions. » He further claimed that the Israeli commando had killed “prisoners” during their maneuver, without providing their identities.

But his statements have little resonance in Israel. No more, moreover, than the bad news which punctuated the return of the four hostages: the advanced illness of Noa Argamani’s mother, the death of Almog Meir Jan’s father, found lifeless at his home the same day, then that the army came to announce the release of his son. Because since the attack of October 7, no symbolic victory has come to this extent to boost the morale of a country lost in fog and astonishment.

The success of this commando operation has given hope to the families of the hostages without anyone really knowing how many are still alive. However, will it make us forget the bitter taste left by a political class suspected of having neither the skills nor the spirit of unity necessary to lead Israel to victory? While the leader of the opposition, Benny Gantz, announced on June 9 that he was resigning from the war council, nothing is less certain.