The initial phase of the ceasefire deal, launched on January 19, is due to end on Saturday with dozens of hostages having been released in return for hundreds of Palestinian detainees and convicts held by Israel.
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Mourners wave Israeli flags as the car carrying the coffin of former Israeli hostage Oded Lifshitz passes by at the entrance of Kibbutz Nir Oz, where his funeral will take place, in southern Israel, on Tuesday, Feb. 25, 2025. Lifshitz was abducted by Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023, and his remains were returned from Gaza to Israel last week as part of a ceasefire with Hamas. Image-AP
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An Israeli woman kidnapped by Hamas Palestinian militants recounted her ordeal at the United Nations Security Council on Tuesday, telling the 15-member body she did not think she would make it out alive, and pleading for a ceasefire to continue.
“Our life cannot go on without them,” said Argamani, who is the first Gaza hostage to address the U.N. Security Council. The initial phase of the ceasefire ends Saturday and talks on the second phase have not yet started.
“The hostages are in hell,” she said, describing feeling left behind when other captives were freed. She and three other hostages were rescued by Israeli forces in June.
Argamani said Israel believes 24 of 63 hostages are alive in Gaza.
“Without immediate action many more innocent people will be killed, including my partner Avinatan Or,” she said. “Until Avinatan returns, my heart is in captivity.”
Noa Argamani was rescued by Israeli forces in June last year, eight months after she and her partner were taken by Hamas from a music festival in southern Israel. Her partner, Avinatan Or, is still held hostage and due to be released during the second phase of a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas.
No more ceasefire talks until Israel frees prisoners: Hamas
A Hamas official says Israel’s delay in the release of some 600 Palestinian prisoners is a “serious violation” of the Gaza ceasefire agreement and talks on a second phase of the accord are not possible until they are returned.
As part of the agreement, Israel was supposed to release the prisoners last weekend after Hamas freed hostages from its Oct. 7, 2023, attack. But Israel delayed the release over the treatment of the captives, who were paraded before crowds. In a written statement Tuesday, Bassem Naim, a senior Hamas official, said the militant group had “fully adhered to all provisions of the agreements” and that Israel’s delay “puts the agreement at risk of collapse, potentially leading to a resumption of war.”
U.N. Middle East envoy Sigrid Kaag, who is also the senior U.N. humanitarian and reconstruction coordinator for Gaza, told the Security Council that a resumption of hostilities in the Palestinian enclave ”must be avoided at all costs.”
”The trauma is undeniable on both sides,” she said. ”In my last visit to Gaza, soon after the ceasefire came into effect, I was once again moved by a sense of utter devastation … and despair due to loss, trauma and a sense of abandonment.”
With inputs from agencies
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