14 June 2024
•
8 Sivan 5784
• Issue 1371
Free Weekly Newspaper Of The Year
The hug we all felt!
Noa Argamani gets a father’s embrace after eight months in Hamas captivity
VOICE OF THE JEWISH NEWS It was an incredible operation, reminiscent of the Entebbe hostage rescue nearly 50 years earlier. Under intensive fire, IDF soldiers freed four Israeli citizens abducted by Hamas from the Nova music festival on 7 October. The footage of Noa Argamani, Almog Meir Jan, Andrey Kozlov and Shlomi Ziv reunited with their families brought forth tears of joy across the Jewish world. For 246 agonising days, their faces had been images on kidnap posters. Then, in a moment that felt like a miracle, they were free, embracing and being embraced by their loved ones in scenes of indescribable emotion. Yet not everyone shared their unfiltered happi-
ness. In the hours following the operation, criticism began to bubble on social media, suggesting that – perhaps all things considered – the hostages might have been better off remaining with Hamas. Journalist Mehdi Hasan ludicrously chastised some of the Israeli soldiers on Twitter/X for not wearing their IDF uniforms during the operation, accusing them of “masquerading as humanitarian workers”. UN special rapporteur Francesca Albanese took exception to the IDF’s failure to be more conspicuous during the rescue, accusing it of using “humanitarian camouflage” by “perfidiously hiding in an aid truck”.
Perhaps Albanese would rather they had rolled into Nuseirat on a glittery blue and white carnival float with Hava Nagila blasting through the speakers. BBC news anchor Helena Humphrey, meanwhile, reduced herself to a laughing stock during her questioning of former IDF spokesman Jonathan Conricus when she suggested that Israel might have reduced the risk of civilian casualties by giving Hamas advance warning of its surprise raid. No doubt about it, a ‘save the date’ card sent to Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, the mastermind of 7 October, would have put things on a friendlier footing. There is, Continued on page 18