Avinatan Or's First Words to His Parents After Captivity

Avinatan Or was reunited with his parents, Yaron and Ditza, and afterwards with his partner, Noa Argamani. “How I hoped that I will be able to tell you that I love you and that I will see you once again in this lifetime,” he told them, according to the account of the meeting released to the press. “I love you.” His father's response was two words, repeated: “What a miracle, what a miracle.”

That is very nearly the whole of the published account. It gives no location for the reunion, no time, no description of his condition and no words from Argamani.

How he came home

Or was released on 13 October 2025 and reunited with Argamani, herself a former hostage, the same day, the Times of Israel reported. He was among the living hostages freed by Hamas that day under the ceasefire agreement that ended the Gaza war. The Jerusalem Post reported that he had been held for 738 days.

Argamani published her own account two days later, thanking the Israeli military and the public, and naming US President Donald Trump and the envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner for their part in securing the release, according to the Jerusalem Post. “Two years passed since the last moment I saw Avinatan, the love of my life,” she wrote, adding that “we won our personal war.”

The couple separated on camera

Or and Argamani were seized together at the Nova music festival on 7 October 2023. Video of the two being pulled apart became one of the best-known recordings from that day, according to the Times of Israel. Argamani was rescued by Israeli forces in June 2024 after 246 days in captivity. Writing publicly two days after their reunion, she said she had been held with women, children and older captives in houses while Or was held alone in tunnels, and that “the recovery will be long”, the Jerusalem Post reported.

Where they were taken from

The Nova festival was an open-air music event held near Kibbutz Re'im, in the western Negev a few kilometres from the Gaza border. More than 360 people were killed there on 7 October 2023 (close to a third of the roughly 1,200 killed across Israel that day), and at least 40 people were taken hostage from the site, the Times of Israel reported.

What the account did not say

The published account of the reunion did not say where or when it took place, who else was present, or what medical care Or received on his return. It described his condition in no way at all, and it recorded nothing that was said between him and Argamani. Everything beyond his own words and his father's is drawn from later reporting rather than from the statement itself.