From endless terror to joy: hostage couple finally reunite

Noa Argamani and her boyfriend Avinatan Or are finally reunited two years after the world watched her being carried away by militants on a motorbike as she screamed in terror.

If there was a defining image on October 7, 2023, it was the footage of Noa Argamani being carried away on a motorbike by Hamas militants as she cried desperately: “Don’t kill me,” reaching out for her boyfriend Avinatan Or.

The image of Noa screaming for Avinatan as he was also dragged away went around the world and came to symbolise the cruelty of the militants – even before the horrors the hostages experienced in captivity was revealed by those, including Noa, who were released.

Noa Argamani is carried away by her captors. Picture: Supplied.

Finally on Monday, Noa and Avinatan were reunited after two years after Avinatan was among the last 20 surviving hostages to be released.

Just as the image of Noa’s capture from the Nova music festival came to define the day of the massacre, the footage of the couple hugging in joy will mark the day for which Israel and the world has waited, for 738 days.

On a deeply emotional day for Israel as families were brought together with the men they had feared lost, it was the most emotional of reunions.

A video released by the Israeli government showed Avinatan, 32, first hugging and kissing his parents as his mother Ditza chanted the Jewish “shehecheyanu” blessing, before turning to Noa, holding her face and tearfully kissing her.

According to Israeli TV, Avinatan asked if he could spend time alone with Noa, who had been freed in June 2024, and they shared what they described as their “first cigarette together after two years.”

According to Channel 12, Avinatan, who was held in isolation, knew nothing of the Israeli Defence Forces operation that freed Noa and three other hostages, only finding out about it during the couple’s reunion.

Avinatan was held in the central Gaza Strip for most of the war and suffered severe starvation. According to the Times of Israel, an initial medical examination found that he had lost between 30 per cent and 40 per cent of his body weight.

After the 20 surviving hostages were freed, Hamas released the remains of only four dead captives.

Earlier on Monday, Hamas had said that it would return the bodies of Bipin Joshi, Yossi Sharabi, Guy Illouz, and Daniel Peretz after earlier agreeing to release all the hostages, living and dead.

The Hostage Families Forum called on the Israeli government to immediately suspend the agreement with Hamas until every deceased hostage was returned.

“Hamas’s violation of the agreement must be met with a very serious response from the government and the mediators,” the forum said in a statement.