DELIVERAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israel carried out its largest hostage rescue mission Saturday since its latest one. The war with Hamas An operation was launched to evacuate the four from central Gaza to safety amid heavy military air and ground bombardment. At least 94 dead Palestinians, including children, were taken to local hospitals, health officials said.
Israelis rejoiced when the Israeli army announced the release of Noah Al-Ghamani, 25. Almog Meir January 21 Andrei Kozlov, 27, and Shlomi Ziv, 40, were taking part in a daytime operation in the center of Nuseirat, raiding two locations at once while under fire. Everyone was fine.“They were transported by helicopter, given medical examinations and were then tearfully reunited with their loved ones after 246 days in captivity,” the army said in a statement.
Arugamani is The most widely known hostage Like the other three, Music FestivalThe first video of her abduction released showed her sitting between two men on a motorbike, screaming “Don’t kill me!”
Her mother, Liola, has stage four brain cancer and released a video pleading to see her before she dies in April. Her father, Jacob, on Saturday hailed his daughter’s return as “the most moral army in the world.”
In a video message released by the government, Al-Ghamani expressed her joy by phone to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, saying she had not heard Hebrew in a long time and was “very excited.”
In a statement, Prime Minister Netanyahu vowed to continue the fight until all the hostages were released. Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said the operation was “intrinsically daring, brilliantly planned and exceptionally executed.”
As Israeli planes flew overhead, the bodies of about 100 slain Palestinians were transported to Al-Aqsa Hospital, where hospital spokesman Khalil Dehglan told The Associated Press that more than 100 wounded had also arrived. Associated Press reporters saw dozens of bodies being carried out from the Nuseirat and Deir al-Baraf neighborhoods as smoke rose in the distance and armored vehicles drove by.
Among the dead were babies. Small children covered in blood were crying and screaming. Barefoot bodies were placed on the ground outside, and more injured people rushed in.
“Two of my cousins were killed and two other cousins were seriously injured. They have done nothing wrong. They were sitting at home,” one relative said amid the chaos. As Palestinians explored the freshly destroyed building, a small child sat on a collapsed metal door, overwhelmed.
Egypt condemned the Israeli attack on the Nuseirat refugee camp “in the strongest terms,” with its foreign ministry calling it a “flagrant violation of all the rules of international law.”
The Israeli army said it struck “a threat to our forces in the area”, adding that one wounded commando was killed.
A U.S. hostage response team provided advice and assistance throughout the hostage search and rescue process, according to a Biden administration official. The official, who was not authorized to comment and asked not to be identified, declined to provide further details about U.S. involvement. The hostage response team is a multi-agency team.
U.S. President Joe Biden said, “We will not stop our efforts until all hostages are home and a ceasefire is achieved.”
In the attack on October 7, Hamas took about 250 hostages, killing about 1,200. A one-week ceasefire was established in November, and about half of them were released. Currently, about 120 hostages remain, of which 43 have been announced as having died.
For survivors About 15 women, two children under the age of five and two men in their 80s.
Saturday’s hostage rescue operation brings the total number of rescued captives to seven. Two were released in February and one was released after an October attack. The Israeli government said Israeli forces have recovered the bodies of at least 16 hostages.
The rescue was expected to be a morale boost for Israel as the war drags on and tensions grow over how best to bring the hostages home.
It was unclear what impact that would have. Ceasefire efforts apparently stalled. we Secretary of State Antony Blinken He plans to return to the Middle East next week in search of a solution.
“The hostage release and ceasefire agreement currently under negotiation would ensure the release of all remaining hostages, along with Israeli security guarantees and relief for innocent civilians in Gaza,” national security adviser Jake Sullivan said in a statement.
Many Israelis have urged Netanyahu to accept the ceasefire agreement announced by President Biden last month, but his far-right allies have threatened to bring down his government if he does so.
International pressure on Israel is growing Civilian bloodshed The war in Gaza entered its eighth month on Friday and has left more than 36,700 Palestinians dead, the Palestinians said. Gaza Ministry of HealthIt does not distinguish between combatants and civilians.
Palestinians are also facing Widespread hunger Due to fighting and Israeli restrictions, Flow of aid.
Israel has stepped up operations in central Gaza, where the hostages were rescued, and on Thursday Israeli airstrikes hit a UN-run school compound in Nuseira. More than 33 people died Those inside the school included three women and nine children.
Israel said there were about 30 militants inside and on Friday released the names of 17 people it said were killed, but only nine of them matched hospital morgue records, which showed one of the alleged militants was an 8-year-old boy.
The Israeli military said Saturday that “Hamas is a terrorist organization that often uses forged documents to disguise terrorists as women and children.”
___
Mednick and Jeffrey reported from Jerusalem. Associated Press writer Ammar Madani in Washington contributed to this report.
___
See AP’s Gaza war coverage below: https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war
