Close to a thousand people packed London’s St John’s Wood Synagogue this week to hear Noa Argamani speak.

On October 7th 2023, Noa and her boyfriend Avinatan Or were at the Nova music festival in Israel’s western Negev when Hamas terrorists attacked. They both fled the scene and hid for hours, having witnessed countless murders by the terrorists, before they were discovered by the attackers. Such was the evil of Hamas that they videoed and live streamed the discovery and of the couple being brutally separated and taken hostage into Gaza. The clip of the terrified Noa, held captive on a motorbike and screaming “Don’t kill me!” was broadcast around the world, becoming one of the defining icons of the horrors of October 7th. Noa was held as a hostage in Gaza for eight months until she was rescued by IDF Special Forces on June 8th 2024.

Shortly after being rescued, Noa devoted herself to campaigning globally for the release of the remaining hostages and the repatriation of the remains of those hostages who had died in captivity. All have now been returned to Israel including Avinatan who was forced to endure two brutal years being held by Hamas before they released him. He and Noa are now reunited. Noa was, and has returned to being, an undergraduate student at the Ben Gurion University of the Negev (BGU) and it was the BGU who hosted the event. Sat on a London stage, being interviewed by Jonathan Sacerdoti, Noa displayed both poise and a heartbreaking elegance as she spoke for more than an hour about her life.

It was only occasionally during her talk that Noa spoke of some of the horrific details of her eight months in captivity.  Of how, after she had been abducted, she came to the terrifying realisation that she was in Gaza due to all the road signs being only in Arabic. Of how she had had to witness the execution, in front of her eyes, of her fellow hostages. Of how she sustained a head injury that was left untreated for months and of how she had to endure days of starvation, with no idea of when she would next be fed by her captors.

As Noa spoke, it was hard (actually impossible) to discern any aspect of humanity in the Gazans that were responsible for so barbarically holding her hostage. The details that Noa shared were painful to listen to – but we in the audience only had to listen to them, cossetted in the plush surroundings of a north west London synagogue. As one’s mind wandered to the enormity of the murderous depravations that Noa was describing, the extent of the nightmare that she spoke of became overwhelming.

Amidst the darkness of Noa’s experience, there shone through beacons of light as she spoke, and almost unbelievably, of the positive energy that she tried to channel. Listening to her captors she taught herself Arabic, learning at times to converse with the terrorists who were holding her captive. She told us of how mindfulness techniques had helped her mental strength through some of the most challenging times, and of how she had tried her hardest to strengthen the spirits of the two young girls. eight year-old  Emily Hand and 12 year-old Hila Rotem-Shoshani, who had briefly at times been held hostage alongside her.

Noa’s rescue was the stuff of Hollywood. Acting upon very precise intelligence the Israeli military were able to swoop in, amidst helicopters, bullets and explosions, to take her and three other hostages back to Israel. Noa spoke of her reaction on learning that her rescuers knew who she was and who her family were, her having had no idea whatsoever of how the agony of her being held hostage had been known and shared around the world. To listen to Noa speak of such unimaginable humility was one of the most moving moments of the evening.

In rescuing Noa, Arnon Zmora, an officer of Israel’s elite Yamam counter-terrorism unit, was fatally wounded. Noa went on to talk of the bond that she has since formed with Zmora’s family, speaking of a tenderness and poignancy and above all love, that again, is almost impossible to comprehend. She spoke of the raw strengths of a shared Jewish experience, her words again leaving her London audience humbled.

Noa went on to speak of the advocacy that she has championed since her rescue that, though she would be the last to admit this, contributed immensely to the ultimate return to Israel of all the hostages.  That advocacy has taken her around the world to meet the great and the powerful, with Noa briefly touching upon the bond that has emerged between her and Howard Lutnick, President Trump’s Commerce Secretary, who on 9-11 lost his brother together with nearly 700 employees when the Twin Towers were attacked, Lutnick recognising that both he and Noa are survivors of great trauma.

Ripped from her happy undergraduate life at BGU, Noa Argamani is a young woman who was deeply connected to her friends and family. Miraculously, she has been spared to be allowed to continue that life, albeit now, most likely, along a profoundly different path. Today she is a woman whose presence is heartbreakingly humbling yet at the same time, inspirational. At 28 years old she has experienced and witnessed acts of despicable violence and cruelty, the likes of which we can barely imagine. To hear her speak is to listen to the very definition of Am Yisrael Chai. Never again.

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)