Noa Argamani speaks on the phone with Israeli President Isaac Herzog, in this screen grab taken from a handout video released on June 8. Israel Presidential Press Office/Handout via Reuters
The Israeli Prime Minister’s Office released a voice recording in which Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was heard speaking to freed Israeli hostage Noa Argamani.
In the recording, Netanyahu tells Argamani he is glad she was rescued.
“We didn’t give up on you for a moment,” the prime minister says.
Argamani had become a symbol of the October 7 attacks after video emerged of her shouting and pleading from the seat of a motorbike as a group of Hamas fighters drove away with her.
The young woman told Netanyahu she was excited to speak Hebrew, having not spoken the language for a long time.
Netanyahu’s office said later Saturday that the prime minister had approved the rescue operation last Thursday, and was present in the command room during the operation.
In a recording of a phone call between Israeli President Isaac Herzog and Argamani released by Herzog’s office, he told her:
“I am so excited and, from the bottom of my heart, on behalf of Michal (Herzog’s wife) and the entire people of Israel, I wish and pray that your mother, Liora, will also be able to hug you. Stay healthy and welcome home. Welcome home.”
Argamani’s mother has late-stage brain cancer. In a video released last November, she made a desperate plea to be able to see her daughter one more time.
Israel’s Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said Saturday he was “overjoyed” that the four hostages had been freed. Israeli forces operated “with extraordinary courage under heavy fire, and succeeded in completing their mission,” he said, adding, “Israel’s defense establishment will continue fighting until 120 hostages return home.”
The operation was “a great light in the terrible darkness,” Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid said Saturday. “Noa, Shlomi, Almog, and Andrei. We have been waiting for you, and we are still waiting for everyone. Everyone,” the former prime minister added.
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