The mother of rescued Israeli hostage Noa Al-Ghamani has died of brain cancer, just weeks after her dying wish to be reunited with her daughter and embrace her one last time was fulfilled.
Liora Arugamani was 61 and had been battling stage 4 cancer for a long time.
“She spent her last days with her daughter Noah and close family, who had returned from captivity,” the Tel Aviv Souraski Medical Center said in a statement announcing her death on Tuesday.
The 26-year-old Chinese-born Israeli who became the public face of the Hamas hostage crisis after being kidnapped on October 7 and rescued along with three other hostages in a daring Israeli army operation last month was finally reunited with his ailing mother.
During her eight months in captivity, Al-Ghamani’s ailing mother repeatedly expressed fears that her daughter would lose her battle with a terminal illness before returning home.
In December, she pleaded with President Biden and the US to help rescue her daughter.
“I have terminal stage 4 brain cancer,” she wrote to Biden, “and the only thing on my mind before I leave my family forever is the chance to hold my only child, my daughter, one last time.”
Al-Ghamani also revealed that her “biggest concern” while held hostage was for her parents.
“I was my parents’ only child and my mother was terminally ill, so my main concern during my incarceration was for them,” Arughamani said. He made the remarks in a video released by the Forum of Hostages and Missing Families. Saturday.
“It’s a great honour to be here after 246 days in Hamas captivity. It’s a great honour to be close to my mother after eight months of uncertainty.”
Days after being reunited with her mother, hospital staff revealed her ill mother’s condition was “complex and severe.”
The hospital’s chief executive officer, Roni Gamzu, said Al-Ghamani was at least able to get in touch with her mother, who understood her daughter had returned home safely.
“Over the past eight months, we have worked hard to keep her available for communication,” the CEO said at the time.
With post wire
