The Israeli military says its forces rescued four captives from central Gaza as it intensified its assault on the besieged and bombed territory.
The announcement about the raid in Nuseirat on Saturday came as Palestinian health officials said at least 210 people were killed and wounded in Israeli strikes in central Gaza. Local residents said Nuseirat had been the target of intense Israeli air and drone strikes, and that children were among the dead.
The military said the four captives: Noa Argamani, 25; Almog Meir, January, 21; Andrei Kozlov, 27 years old; and Shlomi Ziv; 40 – had been taken from a music festival during the attack that the Palestinian group Hamas led in southern Israel on October 7.
They were in “good medical condition” and were taken to hospital for medical checks after a “complex daytime operation.” They were rescued in two separate locations in the heart of Nuseirat, he said. Israeli police said Commander Arnon Zamora died on the mission.
However, Hamas Qassam Brigades spokesman Abu Obaida commented later on Saturday that other captives had died during the rescue operation.
Saturday's operation was the largest recovery of live captives since October 7, bringing the total of captives rescued to seven. Last week, the Israeli military had said that 120 captives remained in Gaza, including 41 whom the army believed were dead.
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said forces were “operating under intense fire in Gaza's most complex urban environment” when they rescued the captives.
He called the operation “one of the most heroic and extraordinary operations I have witnessed over the course of 47 years of service in Israel's defense system.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office released a video of him meeting with rescued captives at the Sheba Medical Center in Tel Aviv. He later praised the rescues as “an operation that will go down in history.”
“We are committed to securing the release of all the hostages, and we hope that Hamas will release them all, but if they don't, they will do whatever it takes to get everyone home,” Netanyahu said during a brief ADDRESS.
None of the Israeli officials mentioned the dozens of Palestinians who were killed as part of the operation, said Al Jazeera's Imran Khan, reporting from Amman in Jordan because the Israeli government has banned Al Jazeera from reporting from Israel.
“The Israelis are simply not talking about the cost of this operation and will not talk about it because they want to make this a success. Netanyahu was under tremendous pressure and the hostages [and Missing] Families Forum is very clear that the ceasefire is the best and most sensible option to recover all the captives still in Gaza.”
“Brutal attack”
Gaza's Health Ministry released images of bloodied patients, including children, lying in the corridors of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir el-Balah after the Israeli army claimed to have attacked “terrorist” infrastructure in what appeared to be be part of the rescue. operation.
In a statement, the Gaza Government Media Office said the Israeli army had launched “an unprecedented brutal attack” on the Nuseirat refugee camp, “leaving dozens of martyrs and wounded in the streets” and continuing “its aggression against all areas of the Central Government”. [Deir el-Balah]”.
A senior Hamas official, Sami Abu Zuhri, told the Reuters news agency after the Israeli army's announcement that “recovering four captives after nine months of fighting is a sign of failure, not an achievement.”
Israeli attacks on Gaza since the start of the war have killed at least 36,801 people and injured 83,680, with thousands more missing under the rubble and presumed dead. Israel launched its assault after the Hamas-led attack during which some 1,140 people were killed and some 240 taken captive.
Hamas freed nearly half of the captives in exchange for Israel's release of dozens of Palestinians held in Israeli jails, in a deal brokered by Qatar and the United States that allowed a brief truce in November.
For its part, the Hostage and Missing Families Forum, an Israeli group that has pressured the government to do more to return the captives, praised the rescue on Saturday as “heroic.”
However, he again called on Israeli leaders to fulfill their “commitment to recover the 120 hostages still being held by Hamas.”
At a joint news conference in Paris, France, US President Joe Biden and French President Emmanuel Macron welcomed the bailouts.
They also renewed calls for both Israel and Hamas to accept a US-backed proposal that would see a cessation of fighting in exchange for the release of remaining captives, and could potentially mean an end to fighting altogether.
“We will not stop working until all the hostages return home and a ceasefire is reached,” Biden said.
He did not mention the number of Palestinian victims of the rescue operation. Biden also made no reference to reports by the New York Times and Axios that a US team based in Israel had provided intelligence and logistical support for the mission.
Change of plans for Gantz
The rescue mission forced Israeli War Cabinet Minister Benny Gantz to delay what had been a planned statement he was due to give on Saturday, in which he was expected to announce his resignation from Netanyahu's government.
Gantz was an opposition politician who joined the government after the October 7 Hamas attack. He is widely seen as an alternative to Netanyahu as prime minister, and had given the Israeli leader a deadline to provide a morning-after strategy for Gaza. That deadline passed on Saturday.
Gantz's spokespersons did not give a new time for his speech.
The Axios news website reported that Gantz, a member of Israel's war cabinet, had avoided announcing that his speech would be postponed until after the rescue operation of the Israeli captives, so as not to alert Hamas.
While Gantz's departure would not bring down Netanyahu's government, it would be a significant blow and would add even more pressure to the embattled prime minister.
On Saturday, Netanyahu called on Gantz not to leave the government.
“Don't give up on unity,” he wrote in X.
