Israel frees four hostages captured in October 7 Hamas attack, killing at least 94 Palestinians – Baltimore Sun

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

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israel carried out its largest hostage rescue operation since the start of the war with Hamas on Saturday, evacuating four hostages from central Gaza as heavy fighting continued there. At least 94 dead Palestinians, including children, were taken to local hospitals, a health official said.

Israelis cheered when the army announced that it had rescued Noa Argamani (25), Almog Meir Jan (21), Andrey Kozlov (27) and Shlomi Ziv (40) in a daytime operation in the heart of Nuseirat. Two locations were raided simultaneously and under fire. All are fine, the military said. They were taken by helicopter for medical examinations and meetings with their relatives after 246 days in captivity.

Argamani was one of the most famous hostages after she was kidnapped like the other three at a music festival. The video of her abduction was one of the first to emerge, showing her between two men on a motorbike, screaming: “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 a video message released by the government, she told him she was “very excited” and said she had not heard Hebrew in such a long time.

Netanyahu said in a statement: “Israel is not surrendering to terrorism and is acting with limitless creativity and boldness to bring our abductees home.” He vowed to continue the fight until all are released.

The operation was “daring in nature, brilliantly planned and exceptionally executed,” said Defense Minister Yoav Gallant.

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

A baby was among the dead. Bloodied little children screamed. The bodies were laid on the ground outside, their feet bare, while other injured people were brought in.

“My two cousins ​​were killed and two other cousins ​​were seriously injured. They committed no sin. They were sitting at home,” said a relative amid the chaos.

The Israeli military said it had attacked “threats to our forces in the region.” The military said a commando had succumbed to his injuries.

A U.S. hostage cell provided advice and assistance throughout the hostages’ location and rescue, according to a Biden administration official. The official, who was not authorized to comment and requested anonymity, declined to provide further details on American involvement. The hostage cells are multi-agency teams.

“We will not stop working until all hostages come home and a ceasefire is achieved,” said US President Joe Biden.

Hamas took around 250 hostages in the October 7 attack, which killed around 1,200 people. Around half of them were released in November as part of a week-long ceasefire. Around 120 hostages are still in prison, and 43 have been declared dead. The survivors include around 15 women, two children under the age of five and two men in their eighties.

A total of seven hostages were rescued in Saturday’s hostage rescue operation. Two men were rescued in February and a woman after the attack in October. According to the Israeli government, Israeli troops have recovered at least 16 hostage bodies.

The latest rescue operation was expected to lift spirits in Israel at a time when the war drags on and disagreements grow over the best way to bring the hostages home.

It was unclear what impact this might have on the ceasefire efforts, which appear to be stalling. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken will return to the Middle East next week hoping for a breakthrough.

“The hostage release and ceasefire agreement now on the table would ensure the release of all remaining hostages, along with security guarantees for Israel and assistance for innocent civilians in Gaza,” National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said in a statement.

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

International pressure is also growing on Israel to limit civilian bloodshed in the Gaza war. The war marked eight months of fighting as of Friday and has killed more than 36,700 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between combatants and civilians. Palestinians are facing starvation because fighting and Israeli restrictions have largely cut off the flow of aid.

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.

The Israeli military claimed on Saturday: “Hamas is a terrorist organization that often uses forged documents and disguises terrorists as women or children.”

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Mednick and Jeffrey reported from Jerusalem. Associated Press writer Aamer Madhani in Washington contributed to this report.

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