At least 210 Palestinians killed in Israeli operation to rescue four hostages

Palestinian authorities said at least 210 people were killed and more than 400 wounded in the Israeli Defense Forces operation in the central Gaza Strip on Saturday. The aim of the operation was to rescue four of the more than 240 hostages kidnapped by Hamas militants last year.

Israeli forces rescued Noa Argamani, Almog Meir Jan, Andrey Kozlov and Shlomi Ziv – all participants or security guards at a music festival that was attacked by Palestinian militants on October 7 – from two locations in the Nuseirat refugee camp in Gaza, according to the Israel Defense Forces. 116 hostages are still being held in the Hamas-ruled enclave, and at least 41 of them are believed to be dead.

Abu Obaida, a spokesman for Hamas’ military wing, said on Saturday: “The enemy managed to free some of its hostages through brutal massacres, but at the same time killed some of them during the operation.”

CNN reported that Israeli police and military spokesmen said an Israeli policeman from an anti-terror unit was killed and estimated the casualty toll of the operation at “less than 100.” The newspaper also mentioned the higher death toll given by Gaza officials and spoke to witnesses – including Abu Abdallah, who said that “dogs were eating the remains of the people. We recovered six martyrs, all of them torn children and women, and we risked our lives to take them to the hospital.”

As The Associated Press detailed:

The bodies of 109 Palestinians, including 23 children and 11 women, were taken to Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, where spokesman Khalil Degran said: The Associated Press more than 100 wounded also arrived. He said a total of 210 dead were taken there and to Al-Awda Hospital, and said he had spoken to the director there. Al-Awda’s figures could not be immediately confirmed.

AP Reporters saw dozens of bodies being brought out of the Nuseirat and Deir al-Balah areas as smoke rose in the distance and armored vehicles rolled past.

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.

“It’s a nightmare in Al-Aqsa,” said Samuel Johann, coordinator of Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) in Gaza, in a statement. “There have been mass casualties because densely populated areas have been bombed. This is far beyond what anyone in a functioning hospital could handle, let alone the scarce resources we have here.”

According to official figures from the Gaza Strip, not only have more than 36,800 Palestinians been killed and over 83,600 injured, but the eight-month retaliation by Israeli forces for the October 7 attack has also destroyed civilian infrastructure in the besieged coastal enclave, including hospitals.

“How many more men, women and children must be killed before world leaders decide to put an end to this massacre?” Johann asked amid ceasefire and hostage negotiations brokered by Egypt, Qatar and the United States – which have supplied weapons and diplomatic support to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s war despite nationwide protests, including on Saturday.

Karin Huster, an MSF medical officer, shared an audio recording of her experience in Al-Aqsa’s emergency room on Saturday afternoon: “Inside, there was total chaos; the entire emergency room… was packed with patients coming from the bombings in Nuseirat. There were hundreds of patients and we did everything we could to stabilize them… And thank God we were able to refer a lot of patients to Nasser Hospital as well as to the IMC field hospital, which is not far from here.”

“Despite the fact that the place was completely overwhelmed, great work was done here,” Huster continued. “There is nothing, nothing at all, that justifies what I saw today. Nothing. These children – the 3-month-old, the 7-year-old, the 12-year-old who died – the 25-year-old man, the 78-year-old woman, all of whom suffered horrific injuries. Why did they deserve this? And why is the world watching in silence? … To what level of horror do we have to go before we finally do something, before we finally tell Israel this is not acceptable?”

Chris Hook, MSF’s medical officer at Nasser Hospital, gave an audio update from there, saying: “We have now admitted nearly 50 seriously injured patients. There are people with multiple severe open fractures of their limbs. We have several unconscious children who need to be put through a CT scan and taken to intensive care.”

“There have been some very bad burns and already four or five people have had to have chest tubes or something similar put in because of serious chest injuries,” he said, explaining that the hospital had limited CT scan capabilities, a shortage of painkillers and the intensive care unit was full. “More patients are coming in. It’s a serious incident with a lot of injuries that is happening right now.”

Nihad Awad, national executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said in a statement Saturday: “We strongly condemn the Israeli government’s gruesome massacre in the Nuseirat refugee camp. Israeli forces reportedly slaughtered at least 200 Palestinian civilians, some hidden in a truck carrying humanitarian aid, while freeing four Israeli hostages. They could and should have been safely released months ago under a ceasefire agreement that Benjamin Netanyahu keeps torpedoing so he can continue the genocide and stay in office.”

“The Biden administration must be transparent about whether the US was involved in this massacre and whether there were Americans in the units that carried it out,” Awad added. “The administration must also stop funding these daily mass killings and instead use American influence to stop the genocide, release all hostages and political prisoners, and end the illegal occupation of Palestine that underlies the violence.”