'I want to see her one more time': Terminally ill mother of Hamas hostage pleads with Biden
It’s the last wish of a dying mother, to be with her daughter once more.
But six months into Israel’s war against Hamas, time is running out for Liora Argamani, who hopes to stay alive long enough to see her kidnapped daughter come home.
“I want to see her one more time. Talk to her one more time,” said Ms Argamani, 61, who has stage four brain cancer. “I don’t have a lot of time left in this world.”
Noa Argamani was abducted from a music festival October 7 when Hamas stormed into southern Israel, killing some 1,200 people and taking around 250 hostage.
The video of her abduction was among the first to surface, images of her horrified face widely shared — Noa detained between two men on a motorcycle, one arm outstretched and the other held down as she screams “Don’t kill me!”
There’s been little news about Noa, 26.
But in mid-January, Hamas released a video of her in captivity. She appears gaunt and under duress, speaking about other hostages killed in airstrikes and frantically calling on Israel to bring her and others home.
Half a year into Israel’s war, agonized families such as the Argamanis are in a race against time.
In November, a weeklong cease-fire deal saw the release of more than 100 hostages. But the war is dragging on, with no end in sight and no serious hostage deal on the table. Israel says more than 130 hostages remain, with about a quarter of those believed dead, and divisions are deepening in the country over the best way to bring them home.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to both eliminate Hamas and bring all the hostages back, but he’s made little progress.
He faces pressure to resign, and the US has threatened to scale back its support over the humanitarian situation in Gaza.
For most families and friends whose loved ones are in captivity, there is no choice but to bring them home.
Many are concerned in particular about the women held in Gaza and say, based on testimonies from freed hostages, they fear those remaining could be suffering from sexual abuse.
A few months before her abduction, Noa had asked a friend to help navigate insurance issues for her mom.
As an only child, she was a big part of her mother’s life and care, and she seemed hopeful she would be OK, Levi said.
But Ms Argamani’s cancer has worsened, according to a video released by the Hostages and Missing Families Forum.
In it, she and her husband tearfully thumb through childhood photos of Noa. From her wheelchair, Liora addresses the camera — and US President Joe Biden directly.
Behind her rests an enlarged photo of Noa’s pained face as she’s dragged into Gaza, on a posterboard with her words overtop: “DON’T KILL ME!”
“My heart really hurts,” Ms Argamani, a Chinese immigrant, says slowly in accented Hebrew. “I am asking you, President Joe Biden... I am really begging you.”
In the video, Noa’s father, Yaakov Argamami, strokes the family photo albums and chokes back tears.
“I miss everything about her,” he says. “Her hug. The hug I wanted to ...”
Unable to finish, he simply nods and the camera cuts away.
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