Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu asked China to help secure the release of hostage Noa Argamani, whose mother, Liora, is from China and is dying of cancer.
Netanyahu described how he had recently requested the intervention of Chinese President Xi Jinping through the country’s Ambassador Cai Run during a speech he delivered to the Knesset on Monday describing his efforts to free the hostages.
Netanyahu told Cai to send a message directly to Xi.
Ofir Tamir holds up a picture of his friend Noa Argamani, who was taken hostage on October 7 by Hamas, as he speaks during a press conference in Copenhagen, Denmark, October 30, 2023. (credit: REUTERS/Tom Little)
“There is a daughter of a Chinese mother and I am personally asking for your interference in the matter of Noa Argamani.”
Netanyahu explained to Cai that there is also the issue here of her mother who just wants to see her daughter one last time before she dies.
The ambassador “assured me,” Netanyahu said, that the message had been delivered.
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Argamani’s story strikes cord
Argamani is one of some 250 hostages kidnapped during Hamas’ infiltration of southern Israel on October 7, an attack during which 1,200 people were killed.
Some 110 of those hostages have been released through a limited deal. It’s presumed that some 129 captives are still in Gaza, while the bodies of some 11 captives have also been retrieved.
Netanyahu has been under pressure to find a way to secure the release of the remaining hostages.
The story of Argamani, 26, who is a student at Ben Gurion University, has struck a particular emotional cord because she was among those filmed on October 7, as she was taken into Gaza on a motorcycle, begging her captors not to kill her.
She had been at the Nova music festival together with her boyfriend Avinatan Or. She was also featured in a second video published soon after she was taken captive, in which she was seen drinking water.
NBC reported this month that it was possible that an armed group, which is not Hamas, had seized her and was holding her.
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