Bloomberg— The Israeli army released four hostages held by Hamas in Gaza on Saturday as part of a major assault on the central city of Nuseirat. At least 94 Palestinians, including children, were killed in the intense fighting, as reported by the press office of the Hamas-led government.
The rescued hostages – a woman and three men – were in good health and had been transferred to an Israeli hospital to undergo further checks, according to the army. They were identified as Noa Argamani, 25, Almog Meir Jan, 21, Andrey Kozlov, 27, and Shlomi Ziv, 40.
“Noa, Almog, Andrei and Shlomi, what a joy to have you back with us,” Defense Minister Yoav Gallant wrote in X. “In a heroic operational activity, our fighters managed to free four hostages from Hamas captivity and bring them home to Israel.”
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The forces acted “under intense fire,” Gallant said, vowing to continue fighting for the return of the remaining hostages. Israel’s police and border guard said a member of their counterterrorism unit had been killed.
Hamas leader Ismail Hanieh issued a statement condemning the “massacres.” Videos of bloody corpses in a nearby hospital circulated on social media.
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Argamani was the hostage seen pleading for help from the back of a motorcycle in a widely seen video of the October 7 attacks on Israel. Her mother is Chinese and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had appealed to the Chinese government to intervene on her behalf.
The four were kidnapped at a music festival in southern Israel when thousands of Hamas operatives crossed the border, killing 1,200 people and kidnapping another 250.. Saturday’s operation marked the first rescue of live hostages since February, when Israeli forces brought home two elderly men, while an exchange in November freed more than 100.
It is unclear how many of the remaining hostages are alive. They are believed to number in the dozens.
On Saturday, the four hostages had been rescued in raids on two different buildings in a residential neighborhood, military spokesman Daniel Hagari said. The operation had been planned for weeks and included hundreds of soldiers and members of the intelligence services and the police, backed by the Israeli air and naval forces, he added.
Israel has been waging war against Hamas in Gaza for eight months and the death toll exceeds 36,000, according to Hamas, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants. The group is considered a terrorist organization by the United States and the European Union.
Following the release of the four hostages, Benny Gantz, an opposition leader who joined Netanyahu’s war cabinet, He said he would delay making a statement after previously threatening to quit the war cabinet on Saturday, easing pressure on Netanyahu at a critical time for his coalition.
Thousands of Israelis who flocked to the beaches of Tel Aviv learned of the rescue in the announcements at the lifeguard stations, which caused cheers and spontaneous dancing.
Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, an Israeli military spokesman, told reporters that the forces that carried out the rescue had practiced on models of the two buildings.
“It had to be like a brain operation, very precise”, said. “It was on a civilian street with trucks and cars and a lot of civilians.”
He said planners decided to carry out the operation in daylight to maximize surprise, since a nighttime assault was expected.
Hagari said the three men were being held in one building and Argamani in a separate one 200 meters (656 feet) away. They were guarded by armed guards and held in civilian buildings to make it impossible to rescue them without causing civilian casualties.
When Israeli forces emerged from the buildings with the hostages, he said, they came under intense fire from civilians outside, prompting Israeli aircraft and other forces to return fire. He acknowledged that casualties numbered around a hundred but said it was not known how many were civilians.
Hagari said that most of the rest of the hostages are not being held in conditions that would allow such an operation and that the way to return them will be through an agreement with Hamas that is being negotiated with the help of the US, Egypt and Qatar. Talks on that deal are expected to resume in the coming days.
–With the collaboration of Galit Altstein
Read more at Bloomberg.com
