Former Israeli Hostage Noa Argamani Dragged to UN to Provide Cover for Israel's Ongoing Genocide

After leveling major criticisms of Israel's military actions and media lies, Argamani is once again used as a political pawn by the Israeli government.

This morning, former Israeli hostage Noa Argamani, who was taken by Hamas in its October 7, 2023 Al-Aqsa Flood attack, spoke in front of the UN Security Council.

Noa Argamani poses with Israeli UN Ambassador Danny Danon

Her comments to the council, and therefore to the whole world, were filled with unconfirmed anecdotes that mirrored propaganda the Israeli government has generated to create false justification for its genocide and continued slaughter and ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people, while also supporting the mirage that the Israeli government prioritizes hostage safety or return.

As reported online by Israel Hayom, which claims to be the most widely-distributed Hebrew-language newspaper in Israel and was founded by the now-deceased right-wing U.S. megadonor Sheldon Adelson, Argamani said the following:

"Hamas treated us like pieces in a cruel game, driven by sheer cruelty.”

This quote must be particularly offensive to the families of hostages who have reported time and time again that the Israeli government has used the hostages as political pawns with no concern for their safety or desire to see them returned from captivity.

Some even explicitly stated that the U.S. government under Joe Biden cared more about the hostages than Israel’s government did.

Other family members have said that protests calling for action against the Israeli government confuse the issue and harm the hostages’ chances, ignoring the fact that many hostages have indeed been killed by Israeli airstrikes and ground operations that even include illegal use of weapons that directly constitute war crimes on their own.

This is in addition to former Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant’s recent admission that the military deployed the Hannibal Directive during Al-Aqsa Flood, which is a policy whereby the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) target their own civilians and soldiers for death in order to prevent the taking of hostages. Exactly zero mainstream western media outlets have reported on Gallant’s statements made on Israel’s Channel 12 TV station on February 6, 2025.

Argmani went on to repeat Israel’s most recent horrifying lie, claiming that Hamas killed an infant and toddler with their bare hands, even though reports indicated the group had informed Israeli officials more than 14 months earlier in November, 2023 that the family was killed in an Israeli airstrike. The story was not covered by any meaningful publication at the time or since, and Israel continued to use the fate of the young children as emotional weaponry against critics of Israel’s genocide and continued cruelty in Palestine.

"You don't need me to tell you about a 9-month-old baby, Kfir, and his 4-year-old brother, Ariel Bibas, and their mother Shiri. A mother and her infants – brutally murdered in captivity. They didn't die in battle. They weren't fighters. They were tender children, whose blood was spilled with unimaginable brutality. This is Hamas – an organization that crushes babies with its hands and celebrates death."

In fact, since the family was returned deceased last week, virtually all western publications have chosen to only publish claims from Israeli government officials that the babies were killed by hand, with absolutely no evidence or independent insight offered or mention of Hamas’s much earlier claims. To date, no publications have discussed this incongruity, instead continuing their policy of printing Israel’s pronouncements uncritically and without demanding any proof.

But perhaps most damning is Argamani’s testimony about her own time in captivity, in which she carefully uses specific words to avoid saying who it was that caused her injuries, even though she and others stated shortly after their rescue that she was injured by Israeli airstrikes and her biggest fear was Israeli bombs killing her. In the past, Argamani even went so far as to criticize major Israeli media including The Jerusalem Post for spreading lies that her injuries were caused by Hamas, because they were actually caused by an Israeli airstrike on the building where she was held.

Argamani publicly stated on August 23, 2024 that, "I said, I had cuts all over my head and I was hurt all over my body… Things were taken out of context. I was not beaten... I was in a building that was bombed by the Air Force… I emphasize that I was not beaten, but injured all over my body by the collapse of a building on me… As a victim of October 7, I will not allow myself to be victimized once again by the media.”

I would be remiss to leave out the fact that the operation to free Noa Argamani and three others resulted in the deaths of at least 274 Palestinians, nearly all civilians, injuring nearly 700 others and reportedly killing three other Israeli hostages, according to Hamas officials. It came to be known as the Nuseirat Massacre, an accurate and apt description.

Fast-forward to today’s speech to the UN, after months of derision by her own society and government, and we find a drastically different tone and set of facts. While she publicly broke down in tears next to Benjamin Netanyahu when he proclaimed “The war will be long,” and refused to promote the idea of a ceasefire deal, she now has few words of criticism for Israel or its leadership. Her speech today sounds much more like the words of the government than her own.

"One evening, the house where we were being held was bombed, and we found ourselves buried under the rubble. Itai managed to get up, but Yossi and I were trapped beneath piles of concrete. I couldn't move. I couldn't breathe. I was drawn into darkness and thought this was it, these were the last seconds of my life. I screamed with all my might for someone to hear me, and I also heard Yossi's screams. Screams of pain, of pleading, of a person trapped between life and death. And then, after a few seconds, I heard only silence. Yossi died next to me, alone, helpless."

In the quote above Noa used the tried-and-true obfuscation tactic of describing an action - “we were bombed, we found ourselves buried” - while intentionally leaving out who was responsible for the action. At least some observers will infer that it was Hamas that bombed the building, which makes absolutely no sense at all. These vastly different statements are surely the result of consistent pressure from the Israeli government, military officials and even the Israeli people, who vocally oppose any hint of criticism of military operations or policies even when they are proven to kill hostages on purpose, going so far as to label any criticism “antisemitic”.

Anyone who has media literacy skills or engages in critical thought knows this is how the entire genocide has been perpetrated - beneath a veneer of truly endless lies, altered statements and fabricated incidents, from the incredulous and repeatedly debunked claim of 40 beheaded babies to the unsupported “human shields” accusations that show every Israeli accusation is indeed a confession, including that Israel is the one beheading babies.

I did not even deeply discuss the recent hostage release in which an Israeli kissed Hamas soldiers on the forehead in front of a crowd of hundreds, for which the images and video were quickly struck from much of the western internet by media companies and governments. Nor did I broach the topic of other hostages’ statements of being treated well by Hamas and only facing hunger due to Israel’s blockade and starvation of Palestine, along with denunciations by Israel that effectively call the hostages liars.

So please, if you want to inform your friends or family, your colleagues or contacts, share this story with them and tell them to click on the links it contains. I’ve done the work for you. Even with just the headlines alone, there can be no confusion: Israel intentionally targets its own hostages and soldiers, uses elderly and child human shields, openly commits murder and civilian massacres with US weaponry, has decapitated infants, coerces hostages to lie about their experiences with Hamas, starves Palestinians and the hostages Hamas captured, and then sends them to the UN to gaslight the entire world so it can continue its genocide and land theft with impunity.

Tell them you will only discuss this topic after they’ve seen these incidents and articles. Tell them you want them to pursue truth and justice, and to stop listening to governments that have only ever pursued war and oppression. Ask them if they think governments are honest, and when they say no, ask why they believe officials from Israel and the U.S. when they talk about Muslims or Palestine or Iraq or “terrorism”. Maybe ask them if they think a Palestinian hostage should be allowed to speak at the UN, perhaps a child.

Don’t insult them, but instead invite them to learn. Plant these seeds. Water them. Nurture them with care and a gentle hand. This is how we can spread truth and, together, help to end the world’s longest running genocide.