JERUSALEM, June 8, 2024 (AFP) – Four Israeli hostages rescued Saturday from a central Gaza refugee camp were freed by troops “from the heart of a civilian neighbourhood” in two simultaneous raids, the military said.
The army named the rescued captives as Noa Argamani, 26, Almog Meir Jan, 22, Andrey Kozlov, 27, and Shlomi Ziv, 41.
It said they were rescued after a “complex daytime operation” which authorities in Hamas-run Gaza said left dozens dead.
All four were kidnapped by Hamas militants from the Nova music festival on October 7, the military said in a statement.
They had been taken to hospital and were in “good medical condition”, it added.
Military spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said the hostages were kept in two buildings in Nuseirat refugee camp that were three- to four-storey high, making it “impossible to reach without going through civilians”.
“There were families and guards” in the buildings, he told journalists in an online briefing.
Argamani was held in one apartment and the other three were together in another in a nearby location, Hagari said.
Targeting just one of the apartments was risky, he said, which is why two simultaneous operations were conducted.
“We surprised them at Noa’s building,” he said, but the rescue team came under fire in the other apartment holding the three men.
An Israeli police officer was wounded there, and later succumbed to his wounds.
– Rare rescue –
The raids began at 11:00 am (0800 GMT), Hagari said.
When the operation ended and the troops were heading out of the area they came under attack “from terrorists with RPGs (rocket-propelled-grenades) shooting at them,” he added.
The Hamas government media office said at least 210 people were killed Saturday in Israeli attacks on the camp from which the four hostages were rescued. AFP was not able to independently confirm the toll.
Hagari earlier said the rescue operation took place in the “heart of a civilian neighbourhood”.
Footage posted on social media by Israeli authorities showed Argamani in an emotional reunion with her father after her rescue.
The rare rescue comes eight months into the war with Palestinian Hamas militants in Gaza.
During their October 7 attack on southern Israel, militants took 251 hostages, 116 of whom now remain in the Palestinian territory, including 41 the army says are dead.
Dozens were released during a one-week truce in November, and seven have been rescued alive by Israeli forces, including the four freed Saturday.
The October 7 attack resulted in the deaths of 1,194 people in Israel, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.
Israel’s retaliatory bombardments and ground offensive on Gaza have killed 36,801 people, also mostly civilians, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry.
– Nuseirat strike –
Earlier on Saturday the military said in a separate statement that forces were “targeting terrorist infrastructure in the area of Nuseirat”.
Hamas in a statement said “there are dozens of bodies of martyrs and wounded lying on the ground, in the streets, and in safe rooms” in and around the camp.
The Palestinian group added that Israeli forces were engaged in a “brutal and savage aggression on Nuseirat camp”.
AFPTV video showed thick plumes of smoke billowing into the sky from several buildings in Nuseirat.
Other footage posted online showed Kozlov and Meir Jan arriving in Israel and beachgoers erupting into cheers in Tel Aviv after a lifeguard announced the four had been rescued.
In recent weeks the military has carried out intense air and ground assaults in and around Nuseirat.
On Thursday, the military struck a school-turned-shelter run by the UN agency for supporting Palestinian refugees, also known as UNRWA, which the Al-Aqsa hospital said had killed 37 people.
The Israeli military acknowledged it conducted the strike in the Nuseirat refugee camp that targeted the UN school, saying it killed 17 “terrorists” there.
In February, another rescue mission freed two hostages. The Gaza health ministry said at the time heavy air strikes that accompanied that mission killed around 100 people in Rafah, southern Gaza.
