Image source, Handouts for families
The Israeli military announced that four Israeli hostages kidnapped by Hamas during its attack on the Nova music festival on October 7 have been rescued.
According to the Israel Defense Forces, the four people rescued were Noah Al-Ghamani, 25, Almog Meir Jan, 21, Andrei Kozlov, 27, and Shlomi Ziv, 40.
The IDF said they were rescued from two locations in Nuseirat, central Gaza, in a “combined” daytime operation carried out in collaboration with the Israel Securities Authority and Israel Police.
The Israel Defense Forces said they were in good health and had been transferred to Sheba Tel Hashomer Medical Center for further medical examinations.
The Hamas-run Health Ministry in Gaza said dozens of people, including children, were killed and wounded in the operation.
Staff at Al-Aqsa Hospital are said to be struggling to treat the injured.
“Dozens of injured people are lying on the ground and medical teams are trying to rescue them with simple medical help,” the ministry said on Facebook.
Al-Ghamani, a Chinese-born Israeli, was also abducted from the festival. Video footage shared with Israel’s Channel 12 by her father, Yaacob Al-Ghamani, shows the 25-year-old being put on the back of a motorbike and taken away, screaming “Don’t kill me!”
Shortly after news of Saturday’s rescue operation was released, new footage was broadcast of Arugamani being reunited with his father in a car, smiling and embracing each other.
Kozlov, a Russian national who moved to Israel in 2022, worked as a security guard at the festival.
Jan tried to flee the festival. He and a friend made it to a friend’s car but were forced to stop after a short distance.
In an interview with The Times of Israel, Ziv said he was part of the festival’s security force and was in contact with the sisters when the attacks first began.
