Four captives were reportedly freed on Saturday by Israeli forces from a Gaza refugee camp, where 210 Palestinians were reportedly killed and hundreds more injured in attacks, according to the government media office run by Hamas.
The four were claimed to be in “good medical condition” by the Israeli military. They had been taken during the October 7 onslaught by Hamas, which triggered the war with Israel, which is currently in its ninth month, from the Nova music festival.
The military reported that Noa Argamani, 26, Almog Meir Jan, 22, Andrey Kozlov, 27, and Shlomi Ziv, 41, had been saved in a “complex daytime operation” from two different structures “in the heart of Nuseirat” camp.
They were among 251 captives seized by the Hamas in their October attack on southern Israel. There are now 116 hostages remaining in Gaza, including 41 the army says are dead.
Footage posted on social media showed Argamani emotionally reuniting with her father after her rescue, as well as beachgoers erupting into cheers in Tel Aviv when a lifeguard announced the four had been freed.
Campaign group the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, which has pressed Israel’s government to reach a deal that would free the captives, hailed the rescue as a “miraculous triumph”.
The Hamas media office said “the number of victims from the Israeli occupation’s massacre in the Nuseirat camp has risen to 210 martyrs and more than 400 wounded”.
The Islamist organization had earlier claimed that Israeli forces were involved in “brutal and savage aggression on Nuseirat camp,” citing numerous Israeli strikes in central regions of the territory, including Nuseirat, that resulted in the initial death toll of 15 according to a Gaza hospital.
According to Israeli police, one of the officers was fatally injured while conducting the rescue.
It was executed in spite of mounting international pressure on Israel following a fatal attack on a UN-run Nuseirat school serving as a shelter for evacuated Gazans.
“The message this morning to Hamas is clear: we are determined to bring back home all the hostages,” military spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said.
Hamas’s Qatar-based leader Ismail Haniyeh vowed to keep fighting.
“Our people will not surrender, and the resistance will continue to defend our rights in the face of this criminal enemy,” Haniyeh said in a statement.
