The Israel Defense Forces said it retrieved Almog Meir Jan, 21; Andrey Kozlov, 27; Shlomi Ziv, 40; and Noa Argamani, who turned 26 in captivity, from two separate locations in Nuseirat, a refugee camp in central Gaza. All four were “in good medical condition” and transferred to hospitals for examination, the IDF said.
The raid, a brazen assault in broad daylight, sparked joy among Israelis who have grown increasingly impatient with stalled negotiations to reach a cease-fire with Hamas militants. It was the largest hostage operation of the war.
Videos and images from Nuseirat as the operation unfolded showed tanks in the streets, punishing airstrikes and grievously injured Palestinians arriving at the area’s overwhelmed hospitals.
GET CAUGHT UP
Summarized stories to quickly stay informed
“Israel committed a massacre in Nuseirat,” Khalil al-Degran, spokesman for al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir al-Balah, said at a news conference Saturday. “There are still a lot of dead and injured in the streets.”
Degran and other health officials said Saturday that 210 people had been killed and 400 others wounded in the operation in Nuseirat. The number of dead included 94 at al-Aqsa Hospital and 116 at the nearby al-Awda Hospital, according to Degran and Marwan Abu Nasser, administrative director at al-Awda.
The IDF said Saturday evening that the number of casualties “remains unknown at this stage.”
In Israel, footage broadcast on television showed the father of Argamani embracing her in the back of a vehicle Saturday afternoon. Meir’s family was shown clapping and singing upon learning of his rescue. Cheers also erupted on the beach in Tel Aviv when lifeguards announced that the hostages were freed.
Argamani, who was kidnapped from the Nova music festival and filmed being driven into Gaza on the back of a motorcycle on Oct. 7, was one of the most high-profile captives.
Netanyahu and Israeli President Isaac Herzog both spoke over the phone with Argamani on Saturday.
“We never gave up on you for one moment,” Netanyahu told Argamani by phone shortly after she arrived to the Sheba Medical Center near Tel Aviv, Israeli media reported. When he asked how she was feeling, she replied, “I’m very excited. I haven’t spoken Hebrew for so long.”
The four rescued hostages were in stable condition and receiving medical care at the facility Saturday afternoon, Itai Pessach, head of Safra Children’s Hospital and Sheba Medical Center’s returning hostages medical team, told reporters.
IDF spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said Israeli forces had prepared for weeks for the “high risk, complex mission,” which was “based on precise intelligence” and began at 11 a.m. local time Saturday. The forces came under fire inside the two buildings where the hostages were held and while leaving Gaza, he said, adding that one member of the Yamam, the Israeli police counterterrorism unit, was seriously injured during the operation. The Israeli police later announced Chief Inspector Arnon Zmora died of his wounds.
“This is what we do in Israel. We risk our lives to save the lives of our hostages,” he said at a news conference. “While we are happy that our four hostages are home, we will not lose sight that 120 hostages are still being held by Hamas in Gaza — men, women, children.”
“We will not stop fighting for their freedom,” he added.
Defense Minister Yoav Gallant praised the mission as “one of the most heroic and extraordinary operations I have witnessed over the course of 47 years serving in Israel’s defense establishment.”
In a news conference Saturday evening, relatives of the freed hostages thanked the security forces who extracted their loved ones and implored the government not to forget about others still in Hamas captivity.
In central Gaza, the victims taken to al-Awda were mostly women and children, said Rami al-Sharafi, a doctor at the hospital. He said they were unable to treat many of the wounded “because of the shelling and bombing nearby.”
Medical staff were trapped inside the clinic, he added, describing the nearby fighting as violent clashes, and said Israeli forces had prevented ambulances from entering or exiting the premises.
A displaced woman staying in Deir al-Balah, which is close to Nuseirat, described the “crazy bombing” on Saturday as “the worst situation” she had experienced.
“I swear we didn’t sleep for a moment. We were terrified 100 times over because of the bombing,” she said, speaking over WhatsApp on the condition of anonymity out of fear for her safety. “I pray God saves us,” she said. “These people are ready to burn the entire world to get someone they want. Our night will be the worst.”
Videos circulating on social media and WhatsApp groups in the aftermath of the attacks showed streets strewn with debris and dead bodies, many of them missing limbs. Children could be seen among the dead. Other clips showed young children and women being carried from ambulances and civilian cars into al-Aqsa Hospital, which was flooded with casualties.
The medical system in the besieged enclave was already on life support, and the deluge of wounded people Saturday quickly overwhelmed nearby hospitals. A graphic video from al-Aqsa Hospital, released by the Gaza Health Ministry, showed a crowded trauma bay, with bodies laid out on the bloody floor.
Degran said the hospital was functioning with only one generator and risked going out of service imminently. He appealed to nearby residents to donate blood to save the lives of those wounded in Saturday’s attacks, and called on the international community “to intervene immediately and urgently to save the Aqsa hospital.”
Hamas officials vowed Saturday’s operation would not move it to capitulate.
“Our people will not surrender, and the resistance will continue to defend our rights in the face of this criminal enemy,” Ismail Haniyeh, head of Hamas’s political bureau, said in a statement. “If the occupation believes that it can impose its choices on us by force, then it is delusional.”
In a later statement, Hamas said the rescue would not change Israel’s “strategic failure” in the Gaza Strip, adding that the militant group still holds a large number of hostages.
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas requested an emergency session of the U.N. Security Council to discuss Saturday’s Israeli assault on Nuseirat, official media reported.
Hamas and allied militants kidnapped more than 250 people from sites across southern Israel during their blitz on Oct. 7. The four hostages freed Saturday made up the largest living group that Israel has recovered through military action; Israeli forces rescued Ori Megidish, an IDF surveillance soldier, in late October. The IDF recovered two men alive from the enclave in February.
One-hundred-and-nine hostages were freed through negotiated releases, the vast majority during a week-long truce in November. Talks to reach a longer-lasting cease-fire that would bring home the 120 hostages believed to remain in Gaza have floundered since then, and about a third of those hostages have been confirmed dead. Israel’s war in Gaza has killed more than 36,800 people and injured more than 83,000, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants but says the majority of the dead are women and children.
President Biden last week released a three-stage truce proposal, which he said Israel supported, in an effort to prevent hawkish factions of the Israeli government from scuttling the talks. But significant daylight remains between Israel and Hamas over how and when the war will end — the crucial point of contention.
At a press appearance in France, Biden said he welcomed the operation Saturday. “We won’t stop working until all the hostages come home and a cease-fire is reached,” he added. White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said the United States was still pushing for the cease-fire deal tabled last week.
Netanyahu has also come under intense pressure from hostage families and demonstrators in Israel to agree to a deal. But his right-wing allies, who advocate for a continuation of the war without pause, have vowed to tank his government if he does so.
News of the successful rescue mission Saturday sparked joy and drew plaudits across the country, as Israelis set aside the acrimony that has riven the country to celebrate a rare victory in the nine-month-old war.
Benny Gantz, a member of Netanyahu’s war cabinet, postponed a speech originally scheduled for Saturday evening where he was expected to resign his post over Netanyahu’s failure to present a postwar vision for Gaza.
Instead, he praised Israeli forces for a “complicated and brave operation that was carried out in an inspiring manner.”
“Even today, my heart goes out to all the families of the abductees,” he said in a statement. “We are committed to doing everything to bring them back home.”
Thousands of protesters have filled the streets of Tel Aviv on Saturday nights in weekly — and increasingly tense — displays of anger at Netanyahu’s government for prolonging the war and failing to bring home more hostages. Last Saturday, more than 100,000 Israelis turned out for the demonstration, demanding that Netanyahu accept Biden’s deal.
Merav Svirsky, the sister of Itay Svirsky, 38, an Israeli hostage who was declared dead in January, urged the Israeli government to reach a hostage-for-prisoners deal with Hamas.
“There have been seven hostages released in military operations so far. More than a hundred were released in the previous deal,” she said at a news conference Saturday. “It is possible to return all of them only through a deal. The only way to save lives and bring everyone back, is for Israel to commit to ending the war. Make a deal!”
Parker reported from Cairo; El-Chamaa from Beirut; Rubin and Soroka from Tel Aviv. Steve Hendrix in Jerusalem, Alon Rom in Tel Aviv, Hajar Harb in London, Bryan Pietsch in Washington, Cleve R. Wootson Jr. in Paris, and Hazem Balousha and Heba Farouk Mahfouz in Cairo contributed to this report.
