By Maayan Lubell and Nidal al-Mughrabi
JERUSALEM/CAIRO (Reuters) -Israeli forces rescued 4 hostages held by Hamas since October in a raid in Gaza on Saturday that Palestinian officers stated killed greater than 200 individuals, one of many single bloodiest Israeli assaults of the eight-month-old conflict.
The hostage rescue operation and an intense accompanying air assault came about in central Gaza’s al-Nuseirat, a densely built-up and sometimes embattled space within the battle between Israel and Hamas, the Palestinian territory’s ruling Islamist group.
An Israeli army spokesperson stated the operation came about within the coronary heart of a residential neighbourhood in Nuseirat the place Hamas had saved the hostages in two separate residence blocks. Israel’s forces got here below intense fireplace in the course of the assault and responded by firing “from the air and from the street”, the spokesperson, Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, stated.
“We know about under 100 (Palestinian) casualties. I don’t know how many from them are terrorists,” he stated in a briefing with journalists. A Israeli particular forces commander was killed in the course of the operation, a police assertion stated.
Gazan paramedics and residents stated the assault killed scores of individuals and left mangled our bodies of males, ladies and youngsters strewn round a market and a mosque.
Israel named the rescued hostages as Noa Argamani, 26, Almog Meir Jan, 22, Andrey Kozlov, 27, and Shlomi Ziv, 41. They have been taken to hospital for medical checks and have been in good well being, the army stated.
They have been all kidnapped from the Nova music pageant in the course of the lethal raid by Hamas-led Palestinian militants on Israeli cities and villages close to Gaza on Oct. 7, which precipitated the devastating conflict.
Hamas’ raid killed some 1,200 individuals, based on Israeli authorities, and Israel’s subsequent bombardment and invasion of Gaza has killed at the very least 36,801 Palestinians, based on an up to date tally by the territory’s well being ministry on Saturday.
CALL TO PRESIDENT
Gunmen took round 250 hostages again to Gaza on Oct. 7, greater than 100 of whom have been launched in trade for about 240 Palestinians held in Israeli jails throughout a week-long truce in November. There are 116 hostages left within the coastal enclave, based on Israeli tallies, together with at the very least 40 whom Israeli authorities have declared useless in absentia.
The spokesperson for Hamas’ armed al-Qassam Brigades, Abu Ubaida, stated some hostages have been killed in the course of the rescue operation. Hamas had earlier stated it nonetheless held a lot of hostages.
Makes an attempt by the US and regional nations to forge a deal that will launch all remaining hostages in return for a ceasefire have repeatedly failed as Israel presses its assault in Gaza. Recent airstrikes within the southern metropolis of Rafah hit properties afterward Saturday, residents and Hamas officers stated.
Israeli Information 12 broadcast footage of Argamani reunited together with her father, smiling and embracing him. Video of Argamani’s kidnapping, displaying her shouting “Don’t kill me!” as she was pushed into Gaza on a motorcycle, had circulated quickly after she was taken on Oct. 7.
A smiling Argamani was proven talking by cellphone to Israeli President Isaac Herzog from hospital surrounded by household and associates, in footage launched by the president’s workplace.
“Thank you for everything, thank you for this moment,” she stated.
“I am so excited to hear your voice, it brings tears to my eyes … Welcome home,” Herzog stated.
Poland praised the rescue of the hostages and stated that one was a twin Israeli-Polish citizen.
BLOODY SCENES
A unique image unfolded again in Gaza, the place Palestinian well being ministry officers and native medics stated that an Israeli army assault in Nuseirat had killed scores of individuals together with ladies and youngsters.
The ministry didn’t say how most of the fatalities have been combatants.
The Hamas-run authorities media workplace in Gaza stated later the dying toll had risen to at the very least 210 Palestinians with many extra wounded, after medics and well being officers gave earlier tolls of up to 100 useless. There was no speedy affirmation of the very best determine from Gaza’s well being ministry.
Social media footage that Reuters couldn’t instantly confirm confirmed our bodies spilling entrails onto bloodstained streets.
“It was like a horror movie but this was a real massacre. Israeli drones and warplanes fired all night randomly at people’s houses and at people who tried to flee the area,” stated Ziad, 45, a paramedic and resident of Nuseirat, who gave solely his first identify.
The bombardment targeted on an area market and the al-Awda mosque, he advised Reuters through a messaging app. “To free four people, Israel killed dozens of innocent civilians,” he stated.
Emergency response groups sought to ferry the useless and wounded to hospital within the close by metropolis of Deir al-Balah however many our bodies have been nonetheless mendacity within the streets, together with across the market district, Ziad and different residents stated.
Nuseirat, a historic Palestinian refugee camp, has been subjected to heavy Israeli bombing in the course of the conflict and there has additionally been fierce floor combating in its jap areas.
The conflict has destabilised the broader Center East, drawing in Hamas’s fundamental backer Iran and its closely armed Lebanese ally Hezbollah, which Israeli officers are threatening to go to conflict with on Israel’s northern border.