A recent report from US news outlet NBC has proposed an alternative scenario to the widely assumed belief that Noa Argamani, taken hostage during the October 7 Hamas assault in southern Israel, was kidnapped by the militant group.
The investigation suggests that Argamani may have been seized by a group of Gaza civilians rather than Hamas.
The inquiry, published on Tuesday, delves into the disappearance of the 26-year-old Argamani, who was not released during the week-long truce deal between Israel and Hamas in late November.
While the truce resulted in the release of 105 individuals, including mostly women and children, who were held by various groups in Gaza, Argamani’s whereabouts remained unknown, leaving her loved ones without any signs of life since the initial days of the conflict.
Argamani was abducted from the Supernova music festival on October 7, with a video of her capture being among the first to circulate online as Hamas terrorists targeted partygoers. In the video, she is seen on the back of a motorcycle driven by her captor, desperately reaching out to her boyfriend Avinatan Or, who was also taken captive.
Contrary to the widespread assumption that Argamani was taken by Hamas, NBC proposes the possibility that she was captured by a civilian mob exploiting the chaos caused by the Hamas attacks to infiltrate Israel simultaneously.
This alternative explanation could account for her absence from the November truce release, as Hamas may lack information about her location within the Gaza Strip.
Unnamed Israeli military officials pointed out that while the Supernova festival massacre was executed by Hamas’s elite Nukhba Force, the individuals seen taking Argamani did not appear to be armed or wearing military uniforms.
