Noa Argamani, Almog Meir Jan, Andrey Kozlov and Shlomi Ziv were kidnapped by Hamas during the Nova music festival on October 7, according to the Israeli army.
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The Israeli army announced on Saturday June 8 that it had freed four hostages during a “special operation” in Nousseirat, in the center of the Gaza Strip, still targeted by bombings. Noa Argamani, Almog Meir Jan, Andrey Kozlov and Shlomi Ziv were kidnapped by Hamas during the Nova music festival on October 7, according to the army Israeli.
They are in “good health“, added the same source. They were transferred to a medical center in Tel HaShomer, a neighborhood in the city of Ramat Gan, “to carry out additional medical examinations”. According to the Israeli army, 120 hostages are still missing. Here is what we know about the four people released.
Noa Argamani, 26 years old
The image of this Israeli woman screaming “Do not kill me !” to members of Hamas had toured the world after the terrorist attacks of October 7, and had let those close to her know that she had been captured. This student at Ben Gurion University in Beercheba, in the south of Israel, was kidnapped along with her companion, Avinathan Or, a 30-year-old engineer, recalls the Israeli daily Haaretz. Hamas then released several videos of the young woman in January, including one where she claimed that the two men she was detained with were dead.
The days of Noa’s mother, who suffers from brain cancer, are numbered. The X account of the Israeli embassy in France broadcast several videos and images of the young woman with her father after her release. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also spoke with the young woman detained for eight months in Gaza, his team said.
Almog Meir Jan, 22 years old
The young man, from Or Yehuda, a small town east of Tel Aviv, had finished his military service five months before the attack and was to start working for a high-tech company, reports Haaretz.
He also appeared in videos filmed on October 7, when he was taken by Hamas terrorists to Gaza. “Mom, rockets are falling everywhere. I don’t know what’s happening. Mom, I love you”he had time to say by telephone to his mother. “Our life has become a nightmare”the latter had testified, relates South West. “The first thing we will do when he returns is to get together as a family and watch a movie together. Almog is very attached to family”his sister had recently declared, quoted by the daily Israel Hayom.
Andrey Kozlov, 27 years old
A resident of Rishon Lezion, south of Tel Aviv, this 27-year-old Russian, nBorn in St. Petersburg and arrived in Israel about two years ago, was participating as a security guard at the Tribe of Nova music festival when the event was stormed on October 7, according to AFP.
In contact with his father and friends, he had given no sign of life after 9 a.m. He was initially considered missing for three weeks before the army announced that he was being held hostage, recalls Haaretz.
Shlomi Ziv, 41 years old
The man, who was 41 years old during his kidnapping, was also part of the security service at the Tribe of Nova rave, according to the Israeli press. The morning of the attack, he tried to flee by car, without succeeding, reported his sister, with whom he spoke by telephone. He had gone to the festival with two friends, who were also providing security, but who were killed.
Shlomi Ziv lived with his wife near the Lebanese border in Moshav Elkosh (a rural community in Israel), reports Israel Hayom. He worked as a wholesale distributor, but had recently successfully completed studies to become an interior designer.