Israelis on Saturday celebrated the release of four hostages from Gaza in a military operation that Gaza’s health ministry said health official said left least 274 Palestinians dead and hundreds more wounded.
The Israeli military named the rescued hostages as Noa Argamani, 26, Almog Meir Jan, 22, Andrey Kozlov, 27, and Shlomi Ziv, 41, all of whom were abducted from the Nova music festival on Oct. 7 last year.
Video footage widely shared on social media showed beachgoers in Israel’s coastal commercial hub of Tel Aviv erupting into cheers after a lifeguard announced the release of the four hostages over a loudspeaker.
Photo: Israeli army / handout via Reuters
Hilla Israeli, a 39-year-old teacher, said she was relaxing by the Sea of Galilee in northern Israel when she heard the news.
“In an instant everyone started pulling their phones, people came out of the water, shouts of joy came from different directions,” she said. “I cried so much from excitement — I couldn’t stop the tears.”
It was “a very emotional day,” 42-year-old Uriya Bekenstein said. “We have had these hostages in our thoughts for every day for the better part of a year now — to have even a few of them rescued against all odds, it means the world.”
Photo: Bloomberg
Dozens of hostages were released during a one-week truce in November, and before Saturday only three other captives were freed in Israeli military raids.
There are now 116 hostages still held in the Palestinian territory, including 41 the army says are dead.
Thousands of people gathered in Tel Aviv to demand government action to end the war and bring the remaining hostages home.
Photo: AFP
“It should be remembered that only a deal will lead to the release of the vast majority of the hostages,” said Omri Shtivi, the brother of hostage Idan Shtivi, who on Saturday turned 29 in captivity.
The rescue operation was Israel’s largest since the latest war with Hamas began, taking the four to safety out of central Gaza in a heavy air and ground assault.
Israeli aircraft hummed overhead as the bodies of 109 Palestinians including 23 children and 11 women were taken to al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, where spokesperson Khalil Degran said that more than 100 wounded also arrived.
Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry said 274 people were killed in what it labelled the “Nuseirat massacre,” updating an earlier toll of 210 from the government media office which said the fatalities included women and children.
The figures could not be independently verified.
The ministry said 698 people were wounded.
In Nuseirat, where the hostages were being held, Palestinians described coming under intense bombardment and heavy gunfire.
Reporters saw dozens of bodies brought to al-Aqsa hospital from the Nuseirat and Deir al-Balah areas, as smoke rose in the distance and armored vehicles rolled by.
“My two cousins were killed, and two other cousins were seriously injured. They did not commit any sin. They were sitting at home,” one person said at the Nuseirat refugee camp.
Israel’s military said it had attacked “threats to our forces in the area,” and one commando had died.
Israeli military spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari told reporters that intelligence determined some time ago that the hostages were being held in two apartments, about 200m from each other, in the heart of the Nuseirat camp.
The forces had trained repeatedly on a model of the apartment buildings, he said.
The forces moved in simultaneously in broad daylight, believing this ensured the best element of surprise, Hagari said,
However, he said the rescuers came under heavy fire as they moved out, including from gunmen firing rocket-propelled grenades from within the neighborhood.
“A lot of fire was around us,” he said, adding that the military responded with heavy force, including from aircraft, to extract the rescuers and hostages.
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