Former hostage Noa Argamani knows she defied all odds when she survived eight months in Hamas captivity. And she knows the release of her boyfriend, Avinatan Or, two months ago was a miracle of its own.
But during her visit to the Oshman Family JCC in Palo Alto on Tuesday night, she acknowledged a new tragedy: Sunday’s mass shooting at a Hanukkah celebration on Bondi Beach in Sydney that killed 15 people and injured another 40.
“This is a reminder that it’s not over yet. The darkness is everywhere. And if we give up, we just lose. We are here to bring more light into the world,” said Argamani, whose boyfriend was in the audience in Palo Alto. “The fact that I’m here with Avinatan, it’s truly two miracles, when we see how many people we lost and how many chances we had to survive.”
Argamani, 28, stressed the importance of recognizing miracles even in dark times as she spoke with JCC CEO Zack Bodner before an audience of 750.
It was the same mindset that saved Or, who was one of the final 20 living hostages released on Oct. 13, more than two years after they were kidnapped, as part of the cease-fire agreement between Israel and Hamas.
Argamani’s visit was co-sponsored by OFJCC, Jewish Federation Bay Area, the Consulate General of Israel to the Pacific Northwest and Americans for Ben-Gurion University, which supports the Beersheva university where she studies information systems and software engineering. Argamani also spoke Wednesday night at Congregation Emanu-El in San Francisco.
Argamani and Or were attending the Nova music festival together on Oct. 7, 2023, when they were kidnapped into Gaza. One of the enduring video clips of that day showed Argamani desperately reaching out to Or and screaming as terrorists drove her into Gaza on a motorcycle. The two didn’t see each other again until Oct. 13, 2025.
Argamani shared details from the events of Oct. 7 that immediately preceded the shocking scene of their kidnapping.
After attempting to escape by car and then hiding in a nearby forest for hours, Argamani, Or and others were discovered by a group of terrorists. They initially tricked her into thinking that they were trying to help but instead brought her to the motorcycles, where the devastating video was captured.
“He told me that they’re not killing us. They’re taking us to the army. I was really upset and naive, and I thought that maybe this is our angel,” Argamani said. “But I was wrong. They threw me into the motorcycle and separated me from Avinatan.”
After arriving in Gaza, Argamani was first held captive alongside Raya Rotem, Rotem’s daughter Hila, then 12, and Emily Hand, then 8. Argamani described how she took it upon herself to try to keep the girls in good spirits despite the unbearable circumstances.
“I kept telling them that every day that goes by is another day closer to our release,” Argamani said. “There is no other chance, we need to survive, to come back to our families.”
In her hometown of Beersheva, Argamani’s family waited in agony, and her mother, Liora, battled terminal brain cancer.
“I didn’t know if she was alive or not,” Argamani said. “Some days in captivity, I just thought ‘I may not see my mother again.’”
After Emily and the Rotems were released in late November 2023, Argamani’s captors transferred her to where Itai Svirsky and Yossi Sharabi were held in Gaza’s Nuseirat refugee camp.
Sharabi was killed after an Israeli airstrike hit a building nearby, an Israeli military investigation revealed in February 2024. Argamani and Svirsky survived the strike, but two days later, she recalled, the same guard who helped her get out from under the rubble executed Svirsky.
Svirksy’s body was recovered by the IDF last December. The remains of Sharabi, the brother of former hostage Eli Sharabi, were returned to Israel on Oct. 15 as part of the cease-fire deal.
“They didn’t survive even 100 days in captivity. I keep talking about them because we all need to remember those people who didn’t survive in captivity,” Argamani said.
After Israeli Special Forces conducted a covert intelligence operation for over two weeks from a nearby building, they rescued Argamani, Almog Meir Jan, Andrey Kozlov and Shlomi Ziv in a daring mission on June 8, 2024. On the day she was rescued, Argamani recalled she was in disbelief, even as the soldiers raced into the room where she was being held and said they’d come to bring her home.
“In captivity, you just do whatever they tell you to do. You have no control about your life,” Argamani said. “So I walked with them. A few minutes after we got in the car, I saw tears in their eyes, and I knew that it was something else. They were so excited to see me.”
The rescue mission, Operation Arnon, was named after Arnon Zmora, the commander of the rescue team who suffered fatal wounds from Hamas fire.
“He gave his life to save mine. He’s my hero,” Argamani said in an address before the General Assembly of the Jewish Federations of North America in November.
Three weeks after Argamani’s rescue and return to Israel, her mother died. She was 61.
“When I came back and saw my mother, it was the happiest day of my life,” Argamani said. “Both of us survived for so long just to see each other.”
While grieving her mother’s death, Argamani continued to advocate for the release of the remaining hostages in Gaza. Of the 251 people kidnapped on Oct. 7, the body of one is still in Gaza, Ran Gvili.
Or was also present at Tuesday’s event but remained in the audience. He, too, spoke at the General Assembly last month.
Or, 32, spent the entire period of his captivity, 738 days, alone in the Hamas tunnels underneath Gaza.
“For more than two years, I saw no sunlight. Days went by without anyone speaking to me. I didn’t hear my own language. No one called my name,” Or told the Federations audience. “We the Jewish people survived thousands of years because we stood together. When we are united, we are unbreakable.”