Four Israeli hostages freed in raid in central Gaza
Four Israeli hostages kidnapped by Hamas from the Nova music festival during the group’s 7 October attacks have been rescued, Israel’s army has announced.
Those rescued are Noa Argamani, 25, Almog Meir Jan, 21, Andrei Kozlov, 27, and Shlomi Ziv, 40, the Israel Defense Forces said.
They were rescued in a joint “complex” daytime operation, conducted with Israel Security Agency and Israel Police, from two separate locations in Nuseirat, central Gaza, the IDF said.
They are in good medical condition and have been transferred to the 'Sheba' Tel-HaShomer Medical Center for further medical examinations, the IDF said.
Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry says dozens of people, including children, have been killed and injured in the operation.
Staff at the Al-Aqsa hospital are said to be struggling to treat the casualties.
"Dozens of injured people are lying on the ground and medical teams are trying to save them with the simple medical capabilities they have," the ministry said on Facebook.
The rare rescue comes eight months into war with Hamas in Gaza.
During the group's 7 October attack on the music festival and other areas of southern Israel, militants took 251 hostages, 116 of whom now remain in the Palestinian territory, including 41 the army says are dead.
A deal agreed in November saw Hamas release 105 hostages in return for a week-long ceasefire and some 240 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails.
Argamani, a Chinese-born Israeli citizen, was also kidnapped from the festival. Video footage - verified by her father Yaakov Argamani to Israel's Channel 12 - shows the 25-year-old being taken away on the back of a motorbike screaming, "Don't kill me!"
Fresh footage of Argamani reunited with her father, smiling and embracing him on board a vehicle was broadcast soon after news of the rescue operation on Saturday.
Kozlov, a Russian who moved to Israel in 2022, had been working as a security guard at the festival.
Jan tried to flee the festival. He and a friend made it to the friend's car but only managed to drive a short distance before being forced to stop.
Ziv was part of the security detail at the festival and was initially in contact with his sisters as the attack unfolded, according to an interview with The Times of Israel.
The Hostages Families Forum Headquarters, a group representing the families of the hostages, described the rescue of the four hostages as “a miraculous triumph,” and thanked the IDF for the “heroic operation”.
The group added: “The Israeli government must remember its commitment to bring back all 120 hostages still held by Hamas — the living for rehabilitation, the murdered for burial.”
In response to the military offensive in Nuseirat, Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh said Israel could not force its choices on the group.
He said the group would not agree a ceasefire deal unless it achieved security for Palestinians.
-bbc
