Noa Argamani joins Ambassador Danny Danon of Israel as he briefs the media after the Security Council meeting on the situation in the Middle East, at UN Headquarters in New York, on Feb. 25, 2025. Photo: Lev Radin/Sipa USA via Reuters Connect

Rescued Hamas hostage Noa Argamani has been featured in the 2025 TIME100, TIME magazine’s annual list of the 100 most influential people in the world that was revealed on Wednesday.

The 22nd annual list by TIME includes individuals from 32 countries. Argamani, 27, is mentioned on the list under the category of “leaders,” which include US President Donald Trump, journalist and commentator Megyn Kelly, Venezuelan “Iron Lady” María Corina Machado, Argentina’s President Javier Milei, Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa, Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum, and World Health Organization Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

Argamani said she is “deeply honored” to be included on the list but also “grateful that this recognition continues to shine a light on the hostage crisis and the horrific attacks of October 7th. It’s a powerful reminder of the urgent need to keep speaking out.”

The former Hamas hostage has traveled the world to speak with politicians, other leaders, and communities about her abduction and the grave need to take action to secure the release of the 59 people still being held hostage in Gaza. She said she is “humbled to serve as a voice for the hostages who remain in captivity — those who can’t speak for themselves.”

Argamani was taken hostage by Hamas terrorists during their deadly rampage at the Nova music festival in Re’im, in southern Israel, on Oct. 7, 2023. She was held captive in the Gaza Strip by members of the internationally designated terrorist organization for eight months until she was rescued by the Israel Defense Forces during a heroic operation in June 2024. An only child, she was rescued in time to see her terminally ill mother before she died of brain cancer less than a month after returning home. Argamani’s boyfriend Avinatan Or, is still in Hamas captivity and is one of 24 hostages whom Israel believes is still alive. Or recently turned 32, his second birthday in Gaza.

Argamani has become one of the most recognized faces of the hostages who were kidnapped on Oct. 7, 2023, because of harrowing footage that went viral around the world showing her being taken by force into Gaza on the back of a motorcycle, while she pleads for her life and reaches her arm out desperately towards her boyfriend, as he is marched alongside her on foot.

TIME magazine pairs members of its TIME100 list with guest contributors who were chosen by the publication to write about them. Argamani was paired with former Second Gentleman of the United States Douglas Emhoff, who wrote about seeing the heart-wrenching footage of her being abducted.

“The video of Noa Argamani on Oct. 7, 2023, is forever seared into my soul,” Emhoff wrote. “She was joyfully dancing with so many others at the Nova music festival when Hamas launched its brutal terrorist attack. As she was kidnapped into Gaza on a motorcycle, her harrowing expression became a symbol of the pain and trauma Jews worldwide, myself included, continue to feel.”

Emhoff added that since Argamani’s rescue by the IDF, “she has shown extraordinary courage and humanity in speaking out for the remaining hostages.”

“My wife Kamala Harris and I stand with Noa in fighting for the release of all the hostages. We cannot give up until every one of them is home,” he noted. “Noa’s advocacy has ­illuminated Hamas’s extreme brutality, but more importantly, her bravery has embodied Jewish resilience and strength even in the worst moments. She is living proof to the world that, despite everything, ‘we will dance again.’”

Argamani said on Wednesday that her life “changed forever” on Oct. 7, 2023.

“I spent 246 days as a hostage, stripped of freedom and control,” she explained. “Since my rescue, I’ve made a promise to do everything in my power to bring the others home — including my love, my partner, Avinatan Or, who is still being held in the tunnels of Gaza. There are still 59 hostages in Gaza. Innocent people. They need us. We must not stop. Bring Them ALL Home. NOW.”

Members of the 2025 TIME100 list will gather in New York City on April 23 at the TIME100 Summit and a day later at the 19th annual TIME100 Gala, which will air as a primetime television special on May 4 on ABC for the sixth year in a row. It will be available to stream the next day on Hulu.

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Francesca Albanese, UN special rapporteur on human rights in the Palestinian territories, attends a side event during the Human Rights Council at the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, March 26, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Denis Balibouse

The United States has “strongly denounced” the United Nations for extending the tenure of controversial UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese, repudiating the decision as an example of “antisemitic hatred” within the international organization.

“The Human Rights Council’s (HRC) support for Ms. Albanese offers yet another example of why President Trump ordered the United States to cease all participation in the HRC,” the US Mission to the UN said in a statement on Tuesday. “Ms. Albanese’s actions also make clear the United Nations tolerates antisemitic hatred, bias against Israel, and the legitimization of terrorism.”

Albanese, an Italian lawyer and academic, has held the position of UN special rapporteur on human rights in the Palestinian territories since 2022. The position authorizes her to monitor and report on alleged “human rights violations” that Israel supposedly commits against Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza. 

Earlier this month, the UN Human Rights Council renewed the mandate of Albanese, despite widespread calls from several countries and NGOs urging UN members to oppose her reappointment due to her controversial remarks and alleged pro-Hamas stance.

Critics of Albanese have long accused her of exhibiting an excessive anti-Israel bias, calling into question her fairness and neutrality.

Albanese has an extensive history of using her role at the UN to denigrate Israel and seemingly rationalize the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas’s attacks on the Jewish state.

In the months following Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, atrocities across southern Israel, Albanese accused the Jewish state of enacting a “genocide” against the Palestinian people in revenge for the attacks and circulated a widely derided and heavily disputed report alleging that 186,000 people had been killed in the Gaza war as a result of Israeli actions. 

The United Nations launched a probe into Albanese last summer for allegedly accepting a trip to Australia funded by pro-Hamas organizations. She has also celebrated the anti-Israel protesters rampaging across US college campuses, saying they represent a “revolution” and give her “hope.”

While speaking at a Washington, DC bookstore in October, Albanese also accused Israel of weaponizing the fallout of the Oct. 7 slaughters to justify the continued “colonization” of Gaza. 

“The 7th of October is a tragic date for the Israelis, but this is what also triggered the opportunity for Israel to complete and channel the project of colonial erasure. Israel seized the opportunity to complete that plan of realizing Jewish sovereignty only in the land of Palestine,” Albanese said at the time. 

The UN official has also decried Israelis as “foreign” Jews who expelled “indigenous” Palestinians from their land for the purpose of creating an exclusionary ethnostate, erasing the millennia-long presence of Jewish people within the land of Israel. She has also repeatedly condemned Israel as a “colonial” enterprise, comparing the Jewish state to British India or French Algeria. 

“They used to say, let us colonize Palestine as the Brits have colonized India, as the French have colonized Algeria, because up to 70 years ago, colonialism was totally acceptable. Today, it’s not and so the narrative has changed,” Albanese said.

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French actress Mélanie Laurent. Photo: yes Studios.

Multi-award-winning French actress Mélanie Laurent will take on a lead role in the fifth season of the popular Israeli television series “Fauda,” Israel’s yes Studios announced this week.

Laurent’s film credits include “Inglorious Basterds” (2009), “Now You See Me” (2013), and “Operation Finale” (2018). She has two César Awards and a Lumières Award. Her most recent work includes last year’s “The Flood,” a French-Italian film where she played Marie-Antionette, and the French-language film “Freedom,” which she wrote and directed.

Laurent will be featured in seven of the nine episodes in season five of “Fauda,” according to yes Studios. Details about her character and role in the Hebrew-language show have not been revealed, but she will star alongside “Fauda” co-creator and lead star Lior Raz, with whom she previously worked on the 2019 Netflix film “6 Underground.”

Season five of “Fauda” is expected to premiere on yes TV in Israel in early 2026 and will later stream worldwide on Netflix, where the first four seasons of the award-winning show are already streaming. Yes Studios announced in March that filming for “Fauda” season five will begin in late April.

The upcoming season will be filmed in Israel and overseas, following the “Fauda” team on a private mission. Details about the plot for the new season have been kept under wraps. The fifth season will mark 10 years of “Fauda” airing in Israel and around the world on Netflix.

Israeli actor Idan Amedi said in February he will not return for the fifth season of “Fauda” because of his music career and ongoing rehabilitation from injuries he sustained while fighting with the Israel Defense Forces in the Gaza Strip during the Israel-Hamas war that began in 2023. Amedi starred in the show as undercover agent Sagi Tzur, who is the husband of intelligence officer Nurit (Rona-Lee Shimon), who will still be featured in the show’s next season. It remains unclear how “Fauda” will address the exit of Amedi’s character.

As Israel’s longest running action series, “Fauda” follows a team of elite Israeli undercover agents as they hunt down and apprehend terrorists. The show is based on the real-life experiences of its creators, Raz and journalist Avi Issacharoff. The new season is being led by season 4 director Omri Givon (“Hostages”) and written by Omri Shenhar (“Tehran”). “Fauda” is produced by yes TV and L. Benasuly Productions for yes TV.

“Fauda” crew member Matan Meir was killed in action in November 2023 while fighting in Gaza as an IDF reservist.

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