Four Israeli hostages captured by Hamas during the terror group’s October 7 attacks have been rescued, the IDF has announced.
Noa Argamani, 25, Almog Meir Jan, 21, Andri Kozlov, 27, and Shlomi Ziv, 40, were rescued in a joint “complex” daytime operation, officials said.
The op was conducted with Israel Securities Authority and Israel Police, with the hostages free from two separate locations in Nuseirat, central Gaza, according to Israel’s military.
The hostages, who had been in captivity for nine months, are said to be in good medical condition and have been taken to the “Sheba” Tel-HaShomer Medical Center to be assessed.
All four had been attending the Nova music festival on the day of the attacks, which left some 1,200 dead, with around 250 taken hostage by Hamas and dragged to Gaza.
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Video footage showed Argamani, a Chinese-born Israeli citizen, being taken away on the back of a motorbike screaming, “Don’t kill me!”
Her mother, Liora, has stage four brain cancer and in April released a video pleading to see her daughter before she dies.
Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry says dozens of people, including children were killed and injured in the rescue operation with staff at the Al-Aqsa hospital said to be struggling to provide treatment.
The terror group’s attack on southern Israel last year triggered the Israel-Hamas war and an ongoing bombardment of Gaza by the IDF.
Israel’s offensive has killed at least 36,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between fighters and civilians in its figures.
Around half of the hostages held in Gaza were released in a weeklong cease-fire in November, but Israel says more than 130 remain, with about a quarter of those believed dead.
Divisions are deepening in the country over the best way to bring them home.
The rescue comes as international pressure mounts on Israel to limit civilian bloodshed in its war in Gaza, which reached its eighth month on Friday.
Seeking a breakthrough in the apparently stalled cease-fire negotiations between Israel and Hamas, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken will return to the Middle East next week.
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is facing growing pressure to end the fighting in Gaza, with many Israelis urging him to embrace a deal announced last month by US President Joe Biden, but far-right allies threatening to collapse his government if he does.
Israel’s invasion has brought a humanitarian crisis to the people of Gaza, with healthcare collapsing, a death of supplies and millions displaced.
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