A few hours after her rescue after eight months as a hostage in the Gaza Strip, Noa Argamani rushed to a Tel Aviv hospital to be by her mother’s side, who is suffering from terminal cancer.

Argamani’s face is among the most recognizable among the captives abducted by Hamas fighters in the bloody October 7 attack. Dramatic images of her abduction on a motorcycle, with the 26-year-old begging for her life, desperately trying to touch her partner who was following a short distance away, have gone viral. 30-year-old Avinatan Or remains a prisoner of Hamas.

Noa Argamani was rescued yesterday Saturday along with three other hostages, during the raid of Israeli commandos on an apartment building in the center of Gaza.

“I am so happy to be here,” she said in a phone call with Israel’s president, surrounded by family and friends. A short time later, she received a standing ovation when she arrived at a Tel Aviv hospital where her mother, Liora, is being treated for terminal brain cancer.

Last October, after her daughter was kidnapped at the Nova music festival in the Negev desert, 61-year-old Liora Argamani was asked in a television interview how she envisioned the moment of reunification. “At least I can hug her again,” he replied.

The hospital’s governor, Professor Ronnie Gamzu, described the mother’s condition as “complex and difficult”. But he clarified that Noa Argamani was able to contact her mother, who sensed her presence. “For the last eight months we’ve been trying to keep her at a level where she can communicate,” Gamzu said.

The father of the freed hostage, Yaakov Argamani, was by his daughter’s side from the moment the military helicopter landed with the rescued people from the Gaza Strip. “Today is my birthday, such a gift I could not imagine when I would receive,” he said happily.

More than 360 people were killed in the bloodbath caused by gunmen at the Nova music festival, while another 40 were kidnapped by Hamas militants, according to Israeli authorities.

Near Surasky Hospital in central Tel Aviv, a crowd gathered to celebrate the rescue of the four hostages and demand the release of the 115 abductees who remain in the Gaza Strip.