Israeli couple kidnapped at Nova music festival renunited after 738 days

An Israeli couple who were abducted during the Hamas attacks of 2023 have been reunited, two years after they were violently split up.

Noa Argamani and Avinatan Or were kidnapped from the Nova music festival on 7 October. Video of Ms Argamani being dragged away in terror on the back of a motorbike by Hamas gunmen became one of the most widely recognised images of the attacks.

She was rescued by commandos during a raid on the Nuseirat refugee camp on 8 June 2024, but Mr Or had been separately held by Hamas in central Gaza, according to Israeli media, before being released on Monday.

In a post on Instagram, Ms Argamani said the couple could now begin “healing together”.

After reuniting, Israeli media said the pair shared their “first cigarette together after two years”.

A day after her partner’s release, Ms Argamani shared an emotional Instagram post alongside their first photos together since 2023.

“Two years since the last moment I saw Avinatan, my love. Two years since terrorists kidnapped us, put me on a motorcycle, and tore us apart in front of the whole world,” she wrote.

She said she had been held with other women and children inside houses during her captivity, “while Avinatan was only in the tunnels”.

“Hamas released videos and signs of life from me, while there was no information at all about Avinatan,” the post, in Hebrew, continued.

She said the pair could now begin their recovery.

“We won our personal war and the whole world’s fight with us to get to this moment, and now it’s time for us to begin our shared journey together,” the post said.

Ms Argamani also thanked Trump for his part in bringing the hostages home and helping them “overcome the darkness”.

Mr Or’s father told Israeli media about the conditions his son had been kept in – food supplies which were “meagre” and a lot of time alone, chained up in tunnels during his 738 days in captivity.

“He’s very thin,” Yaron Or told reporters, adding that his son had had “no books, no human contact – nothing”.