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Noa Argamani, a former hostage brought back from Gaza in June, has hit out at Israeli media and clarified that she was not beaten by Hamas and instead her injuries were caused by an Israeli strike on the building she was in.
Ms Argamani, an Israeli, issued a statement on Instagram on Friday to correct media reports that had misquoted her testimony at a meeting with G7 diplomats in Tokyo earlier in the week.
Several media outlets, particularly Israeli ones, had reported her as saying that her captors had beaten her all over her body and had cut her hair.
Ms Argamani clarified that she had said she had “cuts” all over her body and that she was “hurting” from injuries she had sustained when the building collapsed on her after it was hit by an Israeli air strike.
“They [Hamas] didn't beat me and didn't cut my hair. I was in a building that was blown up by the [Israeli] Air Force,” she said.
“I emphasise that they didn’t hit me, but I was hurt all over my body from the collapse of the structure on me,” she added.
Hamas kidnapped about 240 hostages during its attack on southern Israel on October 7. About half were released in a week-long ceasefire in November.
According to Israeli broadcaster Kan, about 109 hostages are believed to still be in Gaza, including Ms Argamani's partner Avinatan Or.
“As a victim of October 7, I will not allow myself to be a victim again by the media,” Ms Argamani said of the misinterpretation of her statement by the media.
She became an emblem of the October 7 attack on Israel, with a viral video showing her being taken away by Hamas on the back of a motorcycle.
Recounting her captivity in Gaza, she told the meeting in Tokyo: “Every night I was falling asleep and thinking: this may be the last night of my life.”
She was rescued in June from Nuseirat refugee camp in a deadly Israeli military operation that killed 210 Palestinians, most of them women and children, according to the health ministry.