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Editor | L.Y.
Preliminary
October 7 marks the second anniversary of Hamas's sudden attack on Israel, which killed, injured and kidnapped more than 4000 civilians in dozens of countries around the world.
Two years after being abducted and rescued by the Israeli army, Noah Al-Ghamani recalls her experiences in Gaza, including sudden rescue, the death of her mother shortly after her return, and the ongoing struggle for the release of her boyfriend and all the remaining hostages.
According to the Israel Defense Forces combat report, at around 6:30 that day, more than 3000 rockets were poured from the Gaza Strip into Israel, covering major cities such as Tel Aviv and Ashdod. At the same time, about 200 Hamas militants penetrated into Israeli border communities through paragliders, speedboats and tunnels to launch ground attacks.
The surveillance video of the music festival showed that at 7: 15, the first rocket exploded about 500 meters away from the stage, causing panic among the crowd. Noah and her boyfriend tried to escape by car, but the vehicle was blocked by the crowd. At 0725 hours, two armed men riding motorcycles rushed into the scene. One of them smashed the window with the butt of his gun and dragged Noah out of the car. She screamed "Don't kill me! No!" And reached her arms towards her boyfriend, who was being held by another militant. This 23-second video quickly spread on social media and became the most impactful visual symbol in the early stages of the conflict.
Follow-up investigations by the Israeli counter-terrorism agency revealed that Noah and three other female hostages were held in a residential home in the Nasserat refugee camp after being captured to the Gaza Strip.
Gaza Cage
Noah, who was kidnapped to the Gaza Strip, experienced 245 days of captivity. According to a verified video released by Hamas in January 2024, she was held in a room of less than 15 square meters in Building 7, Block C, Nuseirat refugee camp. In the picture, Noah wears a gray hoodie and looks pale, repeating mechanically: "My name is Noah Algamani, 26 years old, from Beersheba." This deliberately edited video tries to send the signal to the outside world that the hostages are not abused, but the bullet holes and mottled walls faintly visible in the background expose the harsh detention environment.
According to a report by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, the hostages were subjected to “psychological torture and threat to survival” after being released, Noah revealed to investigators that she and three other female hostages were given only a small amount of clean water and hard bread daily, and that militants had to be inspected every two hours at night.
What is even more cruel is the competition for survival among hostages. According to Almog Meir, who was released in the same batch, in March 2024, a 65-year-old female hostage died due to pneumonia that could not be treated in time. The militants directly moved her body out of the room without any explanation. This inhuman treatment left a profound trauma in Noah's psychological report-she developed persistent insomnia and agoraphobia and required long-term psychological intervention.
Around the moment.
On June 8, 2024, at 3.17 a.m., the Israeli Defense Forces Special Forces launched a rescue operation under the code name “The Dawn Arrow”. According to the declassification operation report, the Zimbet intelligence agency, by analyzing Hamas communications records, locked Noah and others detained in Camp C District 7 building in Nasserrat. In order to avoid repeating the story of the November 2023 rescue failure that led to the death of six hostages, the command developed a three-stage plan: first by drone groups to implement electromagnetic interference to the surrounding buildings, cut off communications to the militants; then send the Red Hat Special Forces from three directions; and finally by a medical helicopter at the top.
On the night of the operation, a sandstorm broke out in the Gaza Strip, and the visibility was less than 50 meters. The assault team relied on a thermal imager to locate the target when the GPS signal was lost. When the soldiers who had broken into the door found Noah, she was curled up in a corner, clutching half a moldy loaf of bread in her hand. Medical records show that when she was released, she lost 23 kilograms compared with before imprisonment, and blood tests showed severe vitamin D deficiency and electrolyte imbalance.
Although the operation successfully rescued four people, it paid a heavy price: three special forces were killed by RPG rocket launchers during the evacuation, and seven others were injured. A follow-up report by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency in the Near East pointed out that the firefight triggered by the rescue resulted in the destruction of 12 homes in the refugee camp and the death of 35 civilians, including 14 children.
Unfinished final farewell
Noah was rushed to Tel Hashomer Hospital in Ramat Gan after her release, at a time when her mother, Leola Algamani, had entered stage four end-stage brain cancer. This Chinese woman, who settled in Israel after being sent to study abroad in the 1990s, underwent three craniotomies and six rounds of chemotherapy during the 298 days after her daughter was kidnapped. According to the Israeli Cancer Society, Liola needed to inject 200 milligrams of morphine every day to relieve pain at the end of her life, but she still insisted on contacting her daughter through video call.
On July 2, 2024, Liora passed away at his home in Beersheba at the age of 61. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu posted on social media: "We join the Algamani family in mourning this brave mother." Noah made no public statement at his mother's funeral, only saying through a spokesperson: "I will continue to fight until all hostages return home."
Hostage crisis
As of October 2025, 103 hostages are still being held in the Gaza Strip, 37 of whom have been identified as "life and death unknown" by the International Red Cross. The conditions for release proposed by Hamas include Israel's full withdrawal from Gaza, lifting the economic blockade of Gaza, and releasing 6000 Palestinian prisoners. Israel insisted that Hamas first submit a complete hostage list and information on the location of detention.
In September 2025, under the mediation of Qatar, Hamas and Israel launched a new round of indirect negotiations. According to Qatar's Al Jazeera, Hamas agreed to release hostages in phases, but demanded that the Israelis release 1,000 prisoners and open Gaza's Rafah Border Crossing with Egypt in the first phase. Israel proposed a "hostages for ceasefire" plan, requiring Hamas to release all women, children and old hostages first. There is a huge gap between the conditions between the two sides, and the negotiations are deadlocked.
Noah is now a core member of the Hostage Families Forum, participating in weekly closed-door negotiations with the Israeli National Security Council. At a public event in August 2025, she said: “My freedom was exchanged for three lives, which is too expensive.”
conclusion
In October 2025, the "New Initiative for Middle East Peace" promoted by US President Trump attracted attention. The plan calls for Israel to designate a "demilitarized buffer zone" in the southern Gaza Strip and promises to release 50 hostages a month. But Hamas spokesman Hazim Kassem immediately refuted: "Any plan that does not involve Israel's withdrawal and lifting of the blockade is waste paper."
At the same time, the International Criminal Court is investigating possible "war crimes" committed by Hamas and Israel in the conflict. In September 2025, ICC chief prosecutor Karim Khan announced that sufficient evidence had been collected to charge both parties with "deliberately targeting civilians" and "damaging necessary infrastructure." The investigation may put new legal pressure on all parties to the conflict, but it remains doubtful whether it will promote peace.
Noah's battle continues. She regularly posts hostage information on social media, organizes family *, and calls on the international community to pay attention to the humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip. "Two years, enough for the world to forget, but enough for us to strive for freedom more determinedly," she said at a memorial ceremony in Tel Aviv on October 7, 2025.
This conflict, which lasted for two years, left a double brand on Noah-she was both a survivor and an unhealed scar. When the siren sounded again on October 7, the ruins of the Gaza Strip and the air-raid shelter in Tel Aviv together constituted the cruelest footnote of this era.
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