Noa Argamani was held captive by Hamas in the Gaza Strip [RICHARD A. BROOKS/AFP/Getty]
A young Israeli woman formerly held captive in Gaza has said she won’t be “victimised” by the media, rebuffing claims members of the Palestinian group Hamas had beaten her.
Noa Argamani, freed in a raid by Israeli special forces in June that killed 274 Palestinians, met with senior diplomats from Israel and Group of Seven, or G7, countries in Japan on Wednesday.
“Every night I was falling asleep and thinking, this may be the last night of my life,” she said.
“In this moment that I’m still sitting with you, it’s a miracle that I’m here.
“It’s a miracle because I survived October 7, and I survived this bombing, and I survived also the rescue.”
But after reporting by Israeli media suggested Argamani had been beaten, she said on Friday that comments were misquoted and pulled from their context.
“I cannot ignore what happened here over the past 24 hours, taking my words out of context,” she said on Instagram.
“[Hamas members] did not hit me while I was in captivity, nor did they cut my hair; I was injured by the collapse of a wall caused by an [Israeli] Air Force pilot.
“As a victim of 7 October, I refuse to be victimised once again by the media.”
The Hamas-led attack on Israel on 7 October killed some 1,200 people and saw around 250 captives taken.
There are 105 people still being held inside the Gaza Strip, including 34 the Israeli military says are dead.
“Avinatan, my boyfriend, is still there, and we need to bring them back before it’s going to be too late,” Argamani said on Wednesday.
“We don’t want to lose more people than we already lost.”
Israel’s war on Gaza, ongoing for more than 10 months, has killed at least 40,334 people, according to the Palestinian enclave’s health ministry.
Despite monthslong efforts by Qatar, Egypt, and the United States to mediate a deal that would see a ceasefire in Gaza and the release of Israeli and Palestinian captives, no agreement has yet been reached.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been blamed by the families of hostages for the failure to reach an agreement.
He has recently tried to impose new conditions on a ceasefire agreement, insisting that Israeli troops stay on the Gaza-Egypt border and at the Netzarim Junction in central Gaza, which Hamas strongly rejects.
