Kidnapping and killing of Noa Marciano

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Noa Marciano
123315 the female observers memorial PikiWiki Israel (cropped).jpg
Memorial stone for Noa Marciano in the Female observers memorial
Born
Known forHer abduction to Gaza during October 7 attacks

Noa Marciano was an 19-year-old Israeli woman who was abducted by Hamas on October 7th 2023 from an IDF observation base on Nahal Oz.

Contents

Background

Noa Marciano was serving as a lookout on an IDF base near the Gaza border in the Kibbutz Nahal Oz where she was kidnapped by Hamas and taken into Gaza along with 250 other Israelis. [1] Marciano was from Modi’in, Israel and served in the Combat Intelligence Collection Corps of the 414th Regiment in the IDF at the time of her abduction. [1]

Kidnapping

Noa Marciano, who was 19 at the time, was serving as a lookout at the Nahal Oz kibbutz military base near Gaza on October 7, 2023, when the base was overrun by Hamas militants. [2] Many of Marciano's fellow soldiers were murdered, but Marciano was kidnapped and dragged alive into the nearby Palestinian enclave. [3]

Marciano's mother, told Haaretz that she last spoke to her daughter on October 7 at 7:30 A.M.

“She [Marciano] told me she was in a protected space and that there had been an infiltration,” Marciano's mother said in the interview, and further added that her daughter than told her mother that she needed to end the call. Marciano's mother said during the call that she didn’t hear shots or screams. Half an hour later, Marciano's mother sent her a message again, but her daughter didn’t reply.” [1]

Captivity

In a photograph released a week after the October 7th attacks, a bound Marciano was shown with three other hostages. A week afterwards, the IDF officially informed Marciano's family that she had been kidnapped and taken into Gaza. [1]

On November 13, 2023, more than five weeks after her abduction, Hamas published a video of Marciano in captivity. The IDF said that it had sent officers to talk to Marciano’s family after publication of the video, and called the video "psychological terrorism". [1] [2] Hamas claimed in the video claiming Marciano had died in an Israeli airstrike. [3] [4] The Israeli military said that they had found her body in a building adjacent to Gaza's Al-Shifa Hospital and returned the corpse to Israel for burial. [3] [5] Hamas had denied accusations by Israel that the terrorist group had kept hostages at Gazan hospitals. [3]

A pathological report conducted by the IDF found that Marciano sustained nonfatal wounds in an Israeli bombing, but was murdered by a Hamas terrorist in the Al-Shifa Hospital. [6]

On November 17, 2023, the body of Noa Marciano, which was recovered from Gaza City, was buried by her family and friends, with Marciano's mother telling mourners she would never forgive what had befallen her daughter, a teenaged conscript soldier. [3]

In early December 2025, Avi Marciano, the father of Noa Marciano, said he learned of his daughter’s death in Hamas captivity through a video of her last moments. In the video, Avi Marciano recounted how he saw footage of a medical professional lethally injecting air into his daughter’s veins after she was taken to Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City. “A medical professional decided to murder her,” Avi Marciano said, describing seeing his daughter in the video “begging for her life.” [7]

Hamas terrorists blamed Noa Marciano’s death on an Israeli airstrike. [4] However the IDF has claimed that Al-Shifa, the hospitol near where Marciano's body was found, and Gaza's largest hospital, sits above a main Hamas command center. [5]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 Kubovich, Yaniv. "IDF confirms death of captive Israeli soldier shown in Hamas video". Haaretz.com. Archived from the original on 2023-11-15. Retrieved 2025-12-15.
  2. 1 2 "Israel confirms death of soldier held hostage in Gaza". BBC. 2023-11-14. Retrieved 2025-12-15.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 "Family buries Israeli conscript hostage, vows never to forgive". Reuters. Archived from the original on 2023-11-28. Retrieved 2025-12-15.
  4. 1 2 "Hamas Releases Video of Hostage Noa Marciano, Saying She Was Killed in Gaza Bombardments". The New York Times.
  5. 1 2 "Israel says second hostage Noa Marciano found dead near Gaza's Al-Shifa Hospital - CBS News". www.cbsnews.com. 2023-11-17. Retrieved 2025-12-15.
  6. News, Israel National. "IDF eliminates terrorist who held Cpl. Noa Marciano hostage". Israel National News. Retrieved 2025-12-15.{{cite web}}: |last= has generic name (help)
  7. "Israeli father: Gazan doctors murdered hostage at Shifa | The Jerusalem Post". The Jerusalem Post | JPost.com. 2025-12-11. Retrieved 2025-12-15.