Israel army says rescued 4 Israeli hostages alive in Gaza

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM: The Israeli military said its troops had rescued on Saturday four Israeli hostages alive from Gaza after a “complex daytime operation”.

The army named the rescued hostages as Noa Argamani, 26, Almog Meir Jan, 22, Andrey Kozlov, 27, and Shlomi Ziv, 41.

All four were kidnapped by Hamas from the Nova music festival on October 7, the military said in a statement, adding the four had been taken to hospital and were in “good medical condition”.

Footage posted on social media by Israeli authorities showed Argamani in an emotional reunion with her father after her rescue.

Argamani was also seen smiling and speaking on the phone with President Isaac Herzog in footage aired on Israeli television.

Israeli forces step up bombing of Rafah as tanks try to push west

Israeli army spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said the operation took place in two separate buildings “in the heart of a civilian neighbourhood”.

“While under fire inside the buildings, under fire on the way out from Gaza, our forces rescued our hostages,” Hagari said in a televised statement.

An Israeli soldier was “critically wounded” in the operation, which took place around 11:00 am (0800 GMT), he added.

“The message this morning to Hamas is clear: we are determined to bring back home all the hostages.”

The rare rescue comes eight months into the war with Palestinian Hamas in Gaza.

Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said on X: “Noa, Almog, Andrey and Shlomi – we are overjoyed to have you home.”

Netanyahu says Israel ‘prepared for very intense operation’ on Lebanon border

During their October 7 attack on southern Israel, Palestinian group took 251 hostages, 116 of whom now remain in the Palestinian territory, including 41 the army says are dead.

The October 7 attack resulted in the deaths of 1,194 people in Israel, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.

Israel’s retaliatory bombardments and ground offensive on Gaza have killed 36,801 people, also mostly civilians, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry.

Nuseirat strike

Earlier on Saturday the military said in a separate statement that forces were “targeting terrorist infrastructure in the area of Nuseirat”.

A Gaza hospital said Israeli strikes in central areas of the territory, including in Nuseirat camp, killed at least 15 people on Saturday.

Israel says jets strike school containing Hamas compound, Gaza media says 27 killed

“Intense Israeli air strikes in central governorate left at least 15 martyrs and tens wounded who have been brought to Al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital,” the spokesman for the facility, doctor Khalil al-Dakran, told AFP.

Dakran said the casualties had come from in and around Nuseirat camp as well as Deir al-Balah, where the hospital is located.

Hamas said in a separate statement: “There are dozens of bodies of martyrs and wounded lying on the ground, in the streets, and in safe rooms.”

The group added that Israeli forces were engaged in a “brutal and savage aggression on Nuseirat camp”.

AFPTV video showed thick plumes of smoke billowing into the sky from several buildings in Nuseirat.

Other footage posted online showed Kozlov and Meir Jan arriving in Israel and beachgoers erupting into cheers in Tel Aviv after a lifeguard announced the four had been rescued.

In recent weeks the military has carried out intense air and ground assaults in and around Nuseirat.

On Thursday, the military struck a school-turned-shelter run by the UN agency for supporting Palestinian refugees, also known as UNRWA, which the Al-Aqsa hospital said had killed 37 people.

The Israeli military acknowledged it conducted the strike in the Nuseirat refugee camp that targeted the UN school, saying it killed 17 “terrorists” there.

In February, another rescue mission freed two hostages, but the health ministry in Hamas-ruled Gaza said heavy air strikes that accompanied that mission killed around 100 people in Rafah, southern Gaza.