Israeli Conflict Deepens as Hostages’ Desperate Plight Adds Unprecedented Complexity

An unsettling aspect of the surprise attack on Israel is the significant number of civilian hostages who were taken. According to the New York Times, approximately 150 Israelis were abducted and taken to different locations throughout Gaza. “Dozens” is the estimate given by CNN, while Hamas claims that the number is “several times greater” than that, according to the BBC. The Wall Street Journal released a video here that shows Israelis being forcibly taken and driven away. Please note that the content of the video may be distressing, as one scene depicts a young woman with her hands tied and bloodied, being roughly forced into a vehicle.

One hostage who has garnered particular attention is Noa Argamani, a 25-year-old woman. The New York Times has verified a video of Argamani being abducted from a music festival on Saturday. You can view a clip of the incident at the Times article. In the footage, she pleads for help and reaches out to her boyfriend, Avinatan Or, as she is taken away on a motorcycle. Or is later shown in the custody of the militants. Additional video emerged on Sunday, appearing to show Argamani in the same clothes, drinking water while being held captive in a room in Gaza, according to the BBC.

“I saw Noa in the video scared and frightened, I can’t imagine what’s going through her mind at all—screaming in panic on a motorcycle,” said Moshe Or, brother of her boyfriend. Argamani, who is of Chinese descent and was born in Beijing, is an engineering student at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in southern Israel, as reported by the South China Morning Post. “She was so petrified, so scared, I was always so protective, but at this moment I couldn’t protect her,” expressed her father, Yaakov Argamani. (Read more Israel stories.)