The mother of a 25-year-old woman who was taken hostage at an Israeli music festival said her daughter didn't tell her family she was going because she was afraid they would be concerned for her safety.

"She didn't tell us anything because she didn't want us to worry about her," Liora Argamani told Insider, adding: "It is very, very hard for me."

Noa Argamani and her partner, Avi Natan, attended the outdoor, all-night music event held about three miles from the border of the Gaza Strip in southern Israel on Saturday.

After armed Hamas fighters stormed in and began taking hostages, Argamani was separated from her partner and taken away by Hamas fighters, according to widely shared social media footage.

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In the video, she can be heard begging the Palestinian militants: "Don't kill me," per The Times of Israel.


Argamani's family only found out she had been kidnapped when the video went viral on social media. They have not heard from her since.

Her mom says their "worst nightmare" has come true.

Shlomit Marciano, a close friend, said she tried to talk Argamani out of attending the event a few days before it began, because the area is considered "very dangerous" due to its proximity to Gaza.

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Going to that music festival "wasn't even a consideration" for Marciano, she said, adding: "It didn't even cross my mind."

Marciano says she has been with Argamani's parents since they discovered their daughter was missing.

She said an Israeli military representative, whose identity she withheld for security reasons, stopped by the house on Monday morning, but didn't share any intelligence about Argamani's whereabouts, she said.

Argamani's mother said she is "very" hopeful her daughter is still alive.

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But she said she was concerned about what Hamas could do to her.

"I have no expectations of the humanity of Hamas," she said, adding: "We all already know what they're capable of."

Hamas' attack on the music festival was the "single largest massacre of Israeli civilians since the country's establishment," IDF spokesperson Libby Weiss told Insider.

At least 260 bodies were found at the site of the Tribe of Nova Music Festival, according to the Israeli rescue service Zaka.

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Hamas militants launched their attack on Israel over the weekend, killing at least 700 Israelis across the country, per Israel's Foreign Ministry.

The scale of the attacks — from land, sea, and air — is such that some Israelis have dubbed it their "9/11", comparing it to the September 11, 2001, attacks on the US.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared a "state of war" shortly after the attacks began, and on Monday Israel announced a "complete siege" of Gaza, pledging to cut off its electricity, food, water, and fuel.