Avinatan Or (left) being abducted from the Nova music festival on October 7, 2023. The IDF added highlights to show Ahmad Abu Marhil (center) and Ahmad Ibrahim Rajab Shaar (right) whom the IDF assassinated in 2025
Or was born and raised in Shilo, an Israeli settlement in the West Bank. He is the son of Yaron and Ditza Or and has two brothers and four sisters.[2][3]
Or studied at Yeshivat Shavei Hevron and served in the Israel Defense Forces as a combat soldier in the elite Gidonim Unit (Battalion 97).[4]
He graduated with a degree in electrical and computer engineering from Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, where he met his girlfriend Noa Argamani, and later worked as an engineer at NVIDIA’s chip-development division.[5] Before their abduction, the couple lived in Tel Aviv.
Abduction
On October 7, 2023, Or and Argamani were attending the Supernova (Nova) music festival near Kibbutz Re'im when Hamas launched its large-scale surprise attack on Israel. As hundreds of terrorists overran the site and began massacring fleeing participants, the couple escaped the main dance area and hid in the surrounding woods. For several hours they remained in contact with Israeli security forces, until a group of terrorists discovered and captured them.[6][7][8]
They were immediately separated: Or was forced to march on foot toward Gaza under armed guard, while Argamani was violently dragged onto the back of a motorcycle.[6][7][8] Video footage recorded by the perpetrators and released the same day shows Argamani screaming in terror, stretching her arms toward Or in desperation as she is carried away, while Or, hands raised, is led off surrounded by at least four gunmen. The clip spread rapidly worldwide and became one of the most widely recognized and enduring images of the October 7 attacks.[9]
Captivity
Having completed mandatory combat service in the IDF’s Gidonim Unit (Battalion 97), Hamas designated Or a “captured soldier” rather than a civilian hostage.[10][11]
On March 12, 2025, Israeli authorities received the first proof-of-life indication concerning Or; intelligence assessments placed him in Hamas captivity in the central Gaza Strip.[12][13][14] Accounts provided by subsequently released hostages described severe malnutrition caused by prolonged deprivation of food and water, as well as marked psychological deterioration.[15]
Following his release, Or recounted an unsuccessful escape attempt in which he dug for weeks with improvised tools, briefly emerged one night, and wrote the word “HOSTAGE” on a sandbag before being discovered and severely beaten.[16] He reported being subjected to extended periods of solitary confinement, frequent restraint, and repeated physical and psychological abuse. Or further stated that captors administered collective beatings to the hostages in retaliation for Israeli media coverage of the Sde Teiman detention-facility controversy.[17]
Or’s girlfriend, Argamani, who was abducted alongside him, was rescued by Israeli special forces on June 8, 2024, during Operation Arnon. After her release, she became a prominent public advocate for the remaining hostages, including Or.[18][19]
Release
Avinatan Or reuniting with his girlfriend, Noa Argamani, following his releaseOr, after his release, at a November 2025 White House ceremony honoring some of the former hostages
On October 13, 2025, Or was freed together with the remaining 19 living Israeli hostages held in Gaza under the terms of the third hostage-release agreement.[20]
Retaliation
After Or was released, Israel announced that it had assassinated two of the terrorists who abducted him. Ahmad Ibrahim Rajab Shaar was assassinated on August 22, 2025 and Ahmad Abu Marhil was assassinated on March 26, 2025. Both were assassinated in airstrikes.[21]
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