Israel rescues 4 hostages kidnapped in October 7 Hamas attack, at least 94 Palestinians killed – Baltimore Sun

By SAM MEDNICK, JACK JEFFREY and WAFAA SHURAFA (Associated Press)

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel said Saturday it rescued four hostages kidnapped in the Oct. 7 Hamas-led attack, the largest rescue operation of its kind since the war in Gaza began. At least 94 Palestinians, including children, were killed as heavy fighting continued over sites in central Gaza, the Health Ministry said.

The Israeli army said it rescued Noa Argamani (25), Almog Meir Jan (21), Andrey Kozlov (27) and Shlomi Ziv (40) at two locations in the heart of Nuseirat on Saturday morning as part of a complex daytime operation by raiding the two locations simultaneously and under fire.

Argamani was one of the most high-profile hostages after she was kidnapped at a music festival in southern Israel. The video of her abduction was one of the first to surface. Argamani is held between two men on a motorcycle and screams: “Don’t kill me!”

Her mother Liora is suffering from terminal brain cancer and released a video in April begging to be allowed to see her daughter one more time before she died.

An excited Argamani spoke to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu by phone. In an audio message released by the government, Netanyahu can be heard asking her how she is. She tells him she is “very excited” and says she hasn’t heard Hebrew in a long time.

The bodies of nearly 100 Palestinians killed were taken to Al-Aqsa Hospital, where more than 100 injured people also arrived, Khalil Degran told the Associated Press. AP reporters also saw the dead being taken to the hospital from the Nuseirat and Deir al-Balah areas as smoke rose in the distance.

The Israeli military said it had attacked “a threat to our forces in the region.” The military said one fighter was seriously injured.

Hamas took around 250 hostages in the October 7 attack, which killed around 1,200 people. Around half were released in November during a week-long ceasefire. Israel says more than 130 hostages are still being held, around a quarter of whom are presumed dead. Disagreements are deepening over the best way to bring them home.

International pressure is growing on Israel to limit the bloodshed among civilians in the Gaza war. As of Friday, the war had already lasted eight months. According to the Gaza Strip’s Health Ministry, more than 36,700 Palestinians have been killed. The ministry does not distinguish between combatants and civilians. Palestinians are suffering from hunger because the fighting and Israeli restrictions have largely cut off the flow of aid.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken will return to the Middle East next week to seek a breakthrough in the apparently stalled ceasefire talks.

Saturday’s hostage-taking brings the total number of hostages freed to seven. Two men were freed in February when troops stormed a heavily guarded apartment, and a woman was rescued after the attack in October. Israeli troops have recovered at least 16 bodies of Gaza hostages, according to the Israeli government.

Defense Minister Yoav Gallant called the rescue a “heroic operation” on Saturday and said the army would fight until all hostages were returned.

Netanyahu is under growing pressure to end the fighting in Gaza, with many Israelis urging him to accept a deal announced by US President Joe Biden last month, but far-right allies are threatening to overthrow his government if he does so.

Israel is intensifying its operations in the center of the Gaza Strip, where the hostages were rescued. On Thursday, an Israeli airstrike hit a UN-run school compound in Nuseirat, killing more than 33 people in the school, including three women and nine children.

Israel said there were about 30 militants in the building at the time and on Friday released the names of 17 militants it said had been killed. However, only nine of those names matched records of the dead from the hospital’s morgue.

One of the suspected militants was an eight-year-old boy, according to hospital records.

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Shurafa reported from Deir al-Balah in the Gaza Strip.

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Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Gaza at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war.