Israel rescues four hostages in Gaza, as attacks
nearby kill at least 93 Palestinians
Woman and three men freed from Nuseirat, as EU
diplomat condemns ‘reports from Gaza of another massacre of civilians’
Emma
Graham-Harrison in Tel Aviv
Sat 8 Jun
2024 20.14 BST
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/06/08/world/middleeast/israel-hostages-nuseirat-gaza.html
Israeli
special forces have freed four hostages held in Nuseirat, central Gaza, as
Israeli attacks and airstrikes in the same area killed at least 93
Palestinians, including children, local medics said.
The rescue
raid was the largest of the war, bringing three men and a woman who were
kidnapped at the Nova music festival back to Israel.
They were
named as Noa Argamani, 25, Almog Meir Jan, 21, Andrey Kozlov, 27, and Shlomi
Ziv, 40.
While
Israelis celebrated the return of the hostages on Saturday night, Palestinians
in Gaza mourned dozens of dead, or watched over loved ones in the overcrowded
al-Aqsa martyrs’ hospital, the only one in the area that is still partly
functioning.
The bodies
of nearly 100 Palestinians were brought to the hospital along with more than
100 injured, spokesperson Khalil Degran told the Associated Press. The agency’s
reporters also counted dozens of bodies, including that of a baby.
Degran
later told the Associated Press that overall, 210 dead had been taken to
al-Aqsa martyrs’ hospital and to al-Awda hospital, saying he had spoken to the
director there. Al-Awda’s numbers couldn’t immediately be confirmed.
The
Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, described the Israeli attacks as a
“bloody massacre” and called for an emergency UN security council session.
The EU’s
top diplomat, Josep Borrell, condemned “in the strongest terms … reports from
Gaza of another massacre of civilians”.
In a post
on X, he called for a ceasefire and the release of all remaining hostages. “The
bloodbath must end immediately,” he said.
The Israeli
military spokesperson R Adm Daniel Hagari confirmed that dozens of Palestinians
had been killed. He knew that “under 100” casualties had been reported, but
could not say how many were civilians, he told a briefing.
Special
forces operated under heavy fire in a “complex urban environment” to carry out
the rescue, the Israeli defence minister, Yoav Gallant, said, describing it as
one of the most extraordinary operations he had seen in a decades-long military
career.
Troops
deployed for the raid included air force and special forces, with naval
support. One team extracting the hostages was confronted by militants, and when
a rescue vehicle got stuck, called in backup, escaping under heavy bombardment,
Channel 12 television reported.
The Israeli
prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said the raid – only the third successful
military rescue of the war – was a historic achievement and proof “Israel does
not surrender to terrorism”. One officer from the counter-terrorism police unit
was killed in the raid.
Netanyahu
has long insisted that military pressure is the best way to ensure the return
of all Israelis captured on 7 October.
But as the
war drags on into its ninth month, he has come under increasing international
pressure to agree a ceasefire deal and domestic pressure to secure the return
of all Israelis still held in Gaza.
Seven
hostages have now been freed by Israeli forces, but the majority of those who
are now back home were handed over under a temporary ceasefire deal last
November. There are still 120 Israelis in Gaza, a third of them presumed dead.
Hostages’
families welcomed the return of the four freed on Saturday but said the
military could not bring back all of those still held captive, and instead
called on the government to reach a ceasefire deal to free their loved ones.
“The
hostages don’t have time. We can’t free everyone in operations, and we must go
for a deal that will save lives,” said Ayala Metzger, the daughter-in-law of
hostage Yoram Metzger, 80, who this week was announced to have died in
captivity.
A
spokesperson for Izz ad-Din al-Qassam, Hamas’s armed brigades, Abu Ubaida,
claimed some Israeli hostages had been killed during the rescue raid, without
giving evidence or details.
All four of
the freed hostages were healthy and were reunited with their families after
medical tests in an Israeli hospital.
Palestinian
militants kidnapped 250 people on 7 October, taking the captives to Gaza.
Argamani
had become one of the most well-known of the Israelis kidnapped that day, after
video that captured her shouting “don’t kill me” as she was abducted by two men
on a motorbike was widely shared after the attack.
Her mother,
Liora Argamani, who has stage four cancer, had said her greatest wish was to
see her daughter again, and the two were reunited Saturday evening in a Tel
Aviv hospital.
It was
Argamani’s father’s birthday on Saturday and he met her soon after she landed
back on Israeli soil. He described her release as a “gift”, in a statement that
also called on Israelis to join the rally for the release of other hostages.
Argamani
also spoke on the phone to Netanyahu, telling him it was good to hear Hebrew
spoken again, and to the president, Isaac Herzog.
US
intelligence was reportedly involved in supporting the Israeli mission, and
President Joe Biden welcomed the return of the four hostages.
He has been
pushing hard for a deal to halt the war and secure the return of everyone held
in Gaza and said that effort would continue.
“We won’t
stop working until all the hostages come home and a ceasefire is reached,” he
said at a joint press conference with his French counterpart, Emmanuel Macron.
He has
apparently been frustrated by resistance in the Israeli government to
negotiating a halt to fighting, suggesting in a recent interview that Netanyahu
may be prolonging the war to protect his personal political interests.
The Israeli
leader has repeatedly said the war will not end until Hamas is “destroyed” and
all hostages are home. Hamas says it will not accept a temporary halt in
fighting.
Saturday’s
rescue operation may give Netanyahu a temporary relief from domestic pressure
to reach a hostage release deal.
After the
news broke, his political rival Benny Gantz, a security cabinet member, delayed
a speech planned for Saturday evening. He had been widely expected to announce
he was leaving the government, having given Netanyahu an ultimatum to form a
long-term plan for Gaza.
Gantz will
now consult allies on whether the hostage release raid represents a fundamental
change in the course of the war, and if he should reconsider his decision to
quit, Haaretz reported.
Netanyahu
called on Gantz to stay in the government, in a post on X on Saturday evening,
saying: “This is a time for unity.”
Gantz
posted an ambivalent reply, saying the prime minister and his team must “look
responsibly at how best we might continue from here”.
Additional
reporting by Matan Cohen and the Associated Press.
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