Another not so stellar week.
Kfir Bibas is “celebrating” (an absurd word if ever there was one) his first birthday in Hamas captivity today. He’s one. He’s spent almost a third of his life as a hostage. There really are no words.
More hostages died or were killed in captivity. Serious Israeli analysts are increasingly writing that military pressure will not lead to a hostage deal. If Israel wants a deal (and some are claiming that Netanyahu actually does not want a deal), Israel will have to think in different terms. Gadi Eizenkott, a former IDF Chief of Staff and a member of the inner War Cabinet, said angrily at a cabinet meeting that the government had better stop lying to itself and admit that the present military pressure was accomplishing nothing for the hostages.
More soldiers were killed.
Hamas cut itself a fabulous deal in which it agreed to get Qatari-supplied medicines to the hostages (more than 100 days too late), as long as for every dose of medicine for hostages, there were 1,000 doses sent in for Gazans (presumably, Hamas soldiers will have first dibs). Having no choice, Netanyahu agreed and then quickly shifted blame for the horrible deal to the army.
So we’ll conclude the week tomorrow with a glimpse at some of the documentation that’s being done to preserve memory of what happened here on October 7 and beyond, while today, we begin to close out the week with one indication of Israelis’ spirit that, despite the difficulty of the past days, remains strong and defiant.
Earlier this week, Hamas once again resorted to demonic psychological manipulation and released a video showing three hostages: Noa Argamani (26 years old from Beer Sheva), Itay Svirsky (38 years old from Tel Aviv) and Yossi Sharabi (53 years old, from Kibbutz Be’eri (one of the kibbutzim that was attacked on October 7).
Ominously, the original video stated that Hamas would soon “reveal” the fates of those hostages. Tragically, within days, the IDF had sufficient evidence (based in part on a subsequent Hamas video that purported to show their bodies) to inform the Svirsky and Sharabi families that Itay and Yossi were murdered while in captivity. The IDF rejected in no uncertain terms Hamas’ assertion that they had been killed by Israeli attacks.
Noa Argamani, as far as we know, remains alive in Hamas captivity. Her mother, Liora Argamani, has stage-4 brain cancer, and does not have long to live. She has pleaded to be able to see her daughter once more before she dies—a request that so far has gone unheeded.
Here are a few snippets of the video:
It’s obvious that the hostages were told what to say by Hamas. They didn’t exactly have much choice. Still, the horror for the families is beyond what any of us can imagine. Most Israelis grimaced, wishing that they could do something.
Argamani’s appearance in the video was harrowing for Israelis because it was a video of her being kidnapped from the Nova Festival that went viral even in the first days of the war:
Seeing her, once again in the hands of Hamas, was more than some could bear.
A group of women, all named Noa and all well-known in Israel, decided to “fight back,” even if symbolically. They put together a video which they then posted on Instagram, which we’ll see below. The Noa’s who participated included
Noa Kirel [singer who represented Israel at the Eurovision]
Noa Koler [actress]
Noa Tishby [actress and activist]
Noa Rothman [lawyer and writer and Yitzhak Rabin’s granddaughter]
Noa Lavie-Sadeh [professor]
Noa Beny [model]
Noa Boguslavsky [model]
Noa Hendin [blogger and writer]
Noa Cohen [actress and TV host]
Here’s their Instagram post (remember that for many viewers, the Instagram post will default to “mute”, in which case you’ll have to unmute the video):
What the Noa’s suggested doesn’t have to apply only in Israel. If your name is Noa, do the same thing. If you know people named Noa, ask them to do it.
It may not get Noa Argamani out any faster, but her mother will see it and know that the world is behind her. And one day, when God willing Noa Argamani gets out, she’ll know we were with her, too.
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