Israel rescues 4 hostages from Gaza; 210 Palestinians reported killed

A man walking amid soldiers wearing helmets raises his hands.

By Wafaa Shurafa, Sam Mednick and Jack Jeffrey

June 8, 2024 Updated 2:40 PM PT

DEIR AL BALAH, Gaza Strip — Israel on Saturday carried out its largest hostage rescue operation since the war with Hamas began, taking four to safety out of central Gaza amid the military’s heavy air and ground assault. The bodies of at least 210 Palestinians, including children, were brought to local hospitals, a health official said.

Israelis were jubilant as the army said it had freed Noa Argamani, 25; Almog Meir Jan, 21; Andrey Kozlov, 27; and Shlomi Ziv, 40, in a daytime operation in the heart of Nuseirat, raiding two locations at once while under fire. The hostages were taken by helicopter for medical checks and reunions with loved ones after 246 days in captivity.

Argamani, one of the most widely recognized hostages, was taken, like the other three, from a music festival in southern Israel. The video of her abduction, among the first to surface, showed her seated between two men on a motorcycle as she screamed, “Don’t kill me!”

Her mother, Liora, has brain cancer and had released a video pleading to see her daughter. Israel’s Channel 13 said Argamani was moved to the hospital where her mother is being treated.

In a message released by the government, an elated Argamani tells Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu by phone that she is “very excited,” saying she hasn’t heard Hebrew in a long time.

Netanyahu in a statement vowed to continue fighting until all hostages are freed. The operation was “daring in nature, planned brilliantly and executed in an extraordinary fashion,” Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said.

A blood-covered child is treated by medical workers.

Israeli aircraft hummed overhead as the bodies of 109 Palestinians, including 23 children and 11 women, were taken to Al Aqsa Hospital. Spokesperson Khalil Degran told the Associated Press that more than 100 wounded had also arrived. He said that in total, 210 bodies had been taken there and to Al Awda Hospital. Al Awda’s numbers couldn’t immediately be confirmed.

“The horrific massacre committed today by Netanyahu and his fascist government against the Palestinian people in Gaza, which led to the slaughter of 210 and more than 400 wounded so far — under the pretext of liberating those detained by the resistance — confirms what the resistance has said repeatedly: that Netanyahu doesn’t plan to reach an agreement to stop the war and free the captured Israelis peacefully,” said Bassem Naim, a senior Hamas official based in Lebanon.

AP reporters saw dozens of bodies brought from the Nuseirat and Deir al Balah areas, as smoke rose in the distance and armored vehicles rolled by.

A baby was among the dead. Children wailed, covered in blood. Bodies were placed on the ground outside, feet bare, as more wounded were rushed in.

“My two cousins were killed, and two other cousins were seriously injured. They did not commit any sin. They were sitting at home,” one relative said in the chaos at Nuseirat refugee camp.

As Palestinians explored the newly destroyed buildings, a child sat on a collapsed metal door, overwhelmed.

Egypt condemned “with the strongest terms” Israel’s attacks on the Nuseirat camp. The Egyptian foreign ministry called it a “flagrant violation of all rules of international law.” Jordan also condemned it.

“The bloodbath must end immediately,” the European Union’s foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, said on the social platform X, noting reports of civilian deaths.

Israel’s military said it had attacked “threats to our forces in the area.” The military said one commando died from his wounds.

Israel’s military spokesman, Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, told reporters that intelligence determined some time ago that the hostages were being held in two apartments, about 220 yards apart, in the heart of the Nuseirat camp. He said the forces had trained repeatedly on a model of the apartment buildings.

Hagari said the forces moved simultaneously on the apartments, believing this would ensure the element of surprise. But the rescuers came under heavy fire as they moved out, he said, including rocket-propelled grenades shot from within the neighborhood.

“A lot of fire was around us,” he said, adding that the military responded with heavy force, including from aircraft, to extract the rescuers and hostages.

A multi-agency U.S. hostage recovery team provided advice and support throughout the process of locating and rescuing the hostages, according to a Biden administration official, who was not authorized to comment and requested anonymity.

Hamas took some 250 hostages during the Oct. 7 attack that killed about 1,200 people. About half were released in a weeklong cease-fire in November. About 120 hostages remain; 43 of them have been pronounced dead. Survivors include about 15 women, two children under the age of 5 and two men in their 80s.

Saturday’s recovery brings the total of rescued captives to seven. Two were freed in February, and one was freed in the aftermath of the October attack. Israeli troops have recovered the bodies of at least 16 hostages, according to the government.

People wave Israeli flags as they celebrate after hostages were rescued.

The latest rescue was expected to lift spirits in Israel as divisions are deepening over the best way to bring hostages home. Many Israelis urged Netanyahu to embrace a cease-fire deal President Biden announced last month, but far-right allies threaten to collapse his government if he does.

Netanyahu, whose support has fallen, rushed to the hospital to greet the freed hostages. But thousands of Israelis again gathered Saturday evening for anti-government demonstrations and calls for a cease-fire deal.

“It’s time to pay the price of a political deal. One deal that will bring them all back without risking soldiers,” said Omri Shtivi, whose brother Idan marked his 29th birthday Saturday while in captivity.

It was unclear what effect the rescue might have on apparently stalled cease-fire efforts. U.S. Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken will return to the Middle East next week, seeking a breakthrough.

“The hostage release and cease-fire deal that is now on the table would secure the release of all the remaining hostages together with security assurances for Israel and relief for the innocent civilians in Gaza,” national security advisor Jake Sullivan said in a statement.

International pressure is mounting on Israel to limit civilian bloodshed in its war in Gaza, which reached its eighth month Friday. More than 36,700 Palestinians have been killed, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between fighters and civilians.

Palestinians also face widespread hunger because fighting and Israeli restrictions have largely cut off the flow of aid.

Palestinians look at the aftermath of the Israeli bombing in Nuseirat refugee camp.

Israel is intensifying attacks across central Gaza, where the hostages were rescued. On Thursday, an Israeli airstrike hit a U.N.-run school compound in Nuseirat, killing more than 33 people, including three women and nine children.

Israel said some 30 militants were inside at the time and on Friday released the names of 17 it said were killed. However, only nine of those names matched records of the dead from the hospital morgue.

One of the people Israel described as a militant was an 8-year-old boy, according to hospital records.

Israel’s military on Saturday asserted that “Hamas is a terror organization that often uses fake documents disguising terrorists as women or children.”

Meanwhile, Benny Gantz, a popular centrist member of Israel’s three-member War Cabinet who had threatened to resign from the government if it didn’t adopt a new plan by Saturday for the war in Gaza, postponed an expected announcement. Netanyahu urged him not to step down.

Associated Press writer Shurafa reported from Deir al Balah, and Mednick and Jeffrey from Jerusalem.