Mother of Israeli hostage Noa Argamani dies less than a month after daughter’s rescue
The mother of a 26-year-old Israeli hostage has died less than a month after her only daughter was rescued from Gaza.
Liora Argamani’s death was confirmed by Ichilov Hospital in Tel Aviv on Tuesday morning. She had been suffering from terminal brain cancer.
During Noa Argamani’s captivity, she said “the chance to hug” her daughter was her only dying wish in a letter to US president Joe Biden.
“I am terminally ill with stage 4 brain cancer,” she wrote. “All that’s running through my mind before I part ways with my family forever is the chance to hug my daughter, my only child, one last time.”
By the time her daughter was released, after more than eight months, Liora Argamani was barely able to look at her, due to her illness, according to her husband.
In a video broadcast to a rally on Saturday night in Tel Aviv, calling for the return of the remaining hostages, Noa Argamani said her biggest concern while in captivity was for her parents.
“As an only child to my parents — and a daughter to a mother with a terminal illness — my biggest worry in captivity was for my parents,” she said in the two-minute clip.
Noa Argamani was one of four hostages rescued in a special operation by the Israeli military from central Gaza on 8 June. Footage showed her being dragged away from the Supernova music festival on the back of a motorcycle on 7 October, screaming for help as she reached out for her boyfriend Avinatan Or, who remains in captivity.
Of the 251 people taken by Hamas during their 7 October cross-border attack, which also saw the group kill roughly 1,200 people, around 120 hostages are still being held in the enclave by Hamas and other militant groups, including the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIF).
Liora Argamani was born in Wuhan, China but married her husband Yaakov Argamani when she came to study in Israel in 1994.
Mr Argamani said after their daughter’s release: “Liora understood but simply couldn’t express her emotions or say what she had longed to tell Noa when she finally met her.
“Unfortunately, her mother is in a very poor condition. She barely looked at Noa. They met after eight months, but it was very difficult.”
In its announcement on Tuesday morning, however, Ichilov Hospital said the mother had “spent her final days next to her daughter”.
The majority of the Israeli hostages returned were included in an exchange deal for Palestinian prisoners during a week-long truce last November.
Since the resumption of fighting after the end of the truce, protests led by the families of the hostages have routinely called for another ceasefire to secure the release of the remaining captives.
But Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu maintains that the only means of freeing the hostages is through a continued offensive in the enclave to root out the remaining Hamas operatives.
More than 38,800 Palestinians, the majority of whom are women and children, have been killed as a result of the fighting since Hamas’ October attack, the local health ministry says.
On Monday, fresh evacuation notices were handed down to Palestinians in the southern city of Khan Younis, forcing thousands to flee for the area for the second time. Israel launched its first offensive in the area last December.
Palestinians and aid workers in the region say they have nowhere left to go as Israeli forces resume offensives across the enclave.
