Daily Mail
· collected 2026-10-07 · by Natalie Lisbona Middle East Correspondent
Avinatan Or, 33, recounts his three-year ordeal following the kidnapping of his girlfriend Noa Argamani during an attack at the Nova music festival in Israel on October 7, 2023. The couple was separated immediately after being captured by Hamas militants; while footage shows Argamani's abduction, Or endured nearly two years of solitary confinement and torture before attempting a daring escape. His memoir, "Through the Earth," details his harrowing experiences and has become an immediate bestseller in Israel.
Written locally by qwen2.5:14b on 2026-10-07,
using this article's own text rather than the other coverage of the
same event (that is the story summary below).
The scream is what the world remembers.
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world → remember → what
Noa Argamani is on the back of a motorcycle, being driven towards Gaza, her arms outstretched as she cries: 'Don't kill me.'
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she → drive → me
That image, splashed across the front page of the Mail on Sunday, became famous around the world.
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image → splash → world
A few yards away, her boyfriend, Avinatan Or, 33, is being frog marched through the fields by men from Gaza and utterly helpless.
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boyfriend → march → Gaza
The footage lasts only seconds.
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footage → last → ?
But it would become one of the defining images of the October 7 attack, the worst massacre of Jews since the Holocaust, leaving 1,200 dead and 251 hostages taken into Gaza.
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it → become → Gaza
Now, on the third anniversary of that day, Or has described for the first time how he and Argamani, his girlfriend of more than a year, fled the Nova music festival before being torn apart for more than two years.
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he → describe → years
Or has also revealed how he endured years in isolation deep beneath Gaza and secretly dug his own tunnel in a desperate attempt to escape — only to be caught and brutally tortured by his captors.
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he → reveal → captors
He tells of his daring escape attempt and his time in captivity in his newly released memoir, 'Through the Earth,' an immediate number one bestseller in Israel soon to be translated into English.
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He → tell → English
'We drove out from the festival area and we tried to get to the main road,' Or told us.
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Or → drive → us
Footage of Noa Argamani's kidnapping at the Nova music festival, where almost 400 partygoers were killed, was one of the first videos of the October 7 massacre to surface
Avinatan Or, 33, spoke to the Daily Mail about his 738 days in Hamas captivity in Gaza
Or's relationship with Argamani, which had become known around the world because of those haunting images from October 7, ultimately did not survive their ordeal
'
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which → kill → ordeal
They started shooting at us, and then we turned around and drove into the field.
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we → start → field
And we found this place and we hid inside this ditch.
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we → find → ditch
For roughly two hours, the couple remained hidden in silence.
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couple → remain → silence
'Actually, we didn't speak,' Or said.
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we → speak → ?
'While we were in the car, I thought—I don't know—I'm proud of her because she did very, very well.
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she → think → her
She didn't get stressed and she kept very cool.
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she → get → ?
'I told her: "Nice job, and I'm very proud of you."
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I → tell → you
And when we were hiding, we were just quiet, without speaking, with our eyes.'
At around 10.30am, they heard dreaded footsteps and Arabic.
'I heard one guy come to us,' Or recalled.
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guy → hide → us
'I heard the steps.
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I → hear → steps
And then we knew we would be found.
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we → know → ?
When he saw us he shouted: 'There are Jews here.''
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he → see → us
Or said he heard Argamani scream and tried to help her escape, but the couple were surrounded.
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couple → say → ?
'Suddenly, I heard Noa scream, and I turned around and I tried to just get to her—I tried to help her to escape,' he said.
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he → hear → her
'Many were surrounding us.
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Many → surround → us
They started to take us into Gaza.'
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They → start → Gaza
The couple were marched on foot for about 15 minutes.
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couple → march → minutes
As they moved towards the border, Or says he kept looking upwards, desperately searching the sky for an aircraft and the ground for any sign of Israeli forces.
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he → move → forces
But he didn't see anything.
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he → see → anything
Then, when they were perhaps 100 or 200 metres from the border, a motorcycle arrived and Argamani was taken away.
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Argamani → arrive → border
It is here that the footage seen around the world begins: Argamani is driven away screaming on the motorcycle, reaching for Or.
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Argamani → see → Or
Just metres away, Or is restrained by a large group of men, his hands bound behind his back.
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hands → restrain → back
'In that situation, I know that there's nothing I can do because I'm surrounded by maybe 25 people,' he said.
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he → know → people
'In the video, you can see four or five of them.'
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you → see → them
He understood that fighting back would probably mean his death.
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fighting → understand → death
'We were surrounded, and I understood that screaming and starting to fight was not an option because it would be the end.
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it → surround → ?
'
Watching Argamani being taken away left him with a crushing sense of helplessness.
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Argamani → watch → helplessness
'It was my job to protect her,' he remembered thinking, 'and there wasn't anything I could do about it.'
uncertain
I → protect → it
Then the motorcycle disappeared.
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motorcycle → disappear → ?
What happened to Or immediately afterwards was never captured by the infamous video.
'And just after they took her, they started to lynch me.
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they → happen → me
…and 82 more, not listed.
The Aporia
