210 Killed In Gaza Camp From Where Israeli Hostages Were Rescued: Hamas
 |
| Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh vowed to keep fighting after the Israeli attack on the camp. |
Israel said its forces rescued on Saturday four hostages alive from a Gaza refugee camp where the Hamas-run government media office reported attacks left 210 Palestinians dead and hundreds wounded.
The Israeli military said the four were in "good medical condition". They had been kidnapped from the Nova music festival during Hamas's October 7 attack that sparked war with Israel, now in its ninth month.
Noa Argamani, 26, Almog Meir Jan, 22, Andrey Kozlov, 27, and Shlomi Ziv, 41, had been rescued from two separate buildings "in the heart of Nuseirat" camp in a "complex daytime operation", the military said
They were among 251 captives seized by the militants 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 group earlier accused Israeli forces of engaging in "brutal and savage aggression on Nuseirat camp", with a Gaza hospital providing an initial death count of 15 in heavy Israeli strikes in central areas of the territory, including Nuseirat.
Israeli police said an officer was mortally wounded during the rescue operation.
It was carried out despite growing international pressure on Israel after a deadly strike on a UN-run school in Nuseirat where displaced Gazans were sheltering.
"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.
Ceasefire 'essential'
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has faced regular street protests demanding a deal to bring the captives home.
Pressure increased after troops retrieved the bodies of seven hostages from the Gaza Strip last month.
On Saturday Netanyahu said the security forces "have proven that Israel does not surrender to terrorism". He pledged to return the rest of the captives.
His office also released a video of him speaking with Argamani on a mobile telephone.
She said she was "very excited" to return home, adding: "I haven't spoken Hebrew in such a long time."
US President Joe Biden welcomed the rescue operation, saying: "We won't stop working until all the hostages are home and a ceasefire is reached. That's essential to happen."
He was speaking in Paris alongside French President Emmanuel Macron, who also congratulated the families for the release of the hostages.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz called the rescue "an important sign of hope".
Near Nuseirat on Saturday, an AFP photographer saw scores of Palestinians fleeing the Bureij camp on foot, fearing further Israeli strikes.
The operation came days after the Israeli strike on the Nuseirat school run by the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, which a Gaza hospital said had killed 37 people.
The military said it killed 17 "terrorists".
UNRWA condemned Israel for striking a facility it said had been housing 6,000 displaced people.
Israel accuses Hamas and its allies in Gaza of using civilian infrastructure, including UN-run facilities, as operational centres -- charges the militants deny.reed more...
0 Comments