The Israeli military said its troops had rescued on Saturday four Israeli hostages alive from Gaza after a “complex daytime operation”.
The military has identified the individuals liberated from captivity as 26-year-old Noa Argamani, 22-year-old Almog Meir Jan, 27-year-old Andrey Kozlov, and 41-year-old Shlomi Ziv.
The military said in a statement that all four had been abducted by Hamas militants from the Nova music festival on October 7 and that they had been taken to a hospital where they were in “good medical condition.”
Following her rescue, Argamani had an emotional reunion with her father, as captured in footage that Israeli authorities shared on social media.
In footage shown on Israeli television, Argamani was also seen grinning and conversing over the phone with President Isaac Herzog.
According to Israeli army spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, the operation happened “in the heart of a civilian neighborhood” in two different buildings.
“While under fire inside the buildings, under fire on the way out from Gaza, our forces rescued our hostages,” Hagari said in a televised statement.
An Israeli soldier was “critically wounded” in the operation, which took place around 11:00 am (0800 GMT), he added.
“The message this morning to Hamas is clear: we are determined to bring back home all the hostages.”
The rare rescue comes eight months into the war with Palestinian Hamas militants in Gaza.
Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said on X: “Noa, Almog, Andrey and Shlomi – we are overjoyed to have you home.”
Terrorists abducted 251 hostages during their attack on southern Israel on October 7. Of those, 116 are still in Palestinian territory, 41 of whom the army claims are dead.
1,194 people in Israel lost their lives as a result of the October 7 attack, the majority of them were civilians, according to an AFP count based on official Israeli figures.
The health ministry of the territory controlled by Hamas reports that 36,801 people have died as a result of Israel’s retaliatory bombardment and ground offensive on Gaza, the majority of whom were civilians.
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Nuseirat strike
Earlier on Saturday the military said in a separate statement that forces were “targeting terrorist infrastructure in the area of Nuseirat”.
A Gaza hospital said Israeli strikes in central areas of the territory, including in Nuseirat camp, killed at least 15 people on Saturday.
“Intense Israeli air strikes in central governorate left at least 15 martyrs and tens wounded who have been brought to Al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital,” the spokesman for the facility, doctor Khalil al-Dakran, told AFP.
Dakran said the casualties had come from in and around Nuseirat camp as well as Deir al-Balah, where the hospital is located.
Hamas said in a separate statement: “There are dozens of bodies of martyrs and wounded lying on the ground, in the streets, and in safe rooms.”
The Israeli forces were waging a “brutal and savage aggression on Nuseirat camp,” the group continued.
Thick smoke plumes could be seen rising into the sky from a number of Nuseirat buildings in AFPTV footage.
Additional video that was uploaded online showed Kozlov and Meir Jan arriving in Israel and Tel Aviv beachgoers bursting into applause when a lifeguard declared the four had been saved.
The military has been heavily attacking Nuseirat and its surroundings from the air and on the ground in recent weeks.
The UN agency for supporting Palestinian refugees, or UNRWA, runs a school that was turned into a shelter on Thursday. According to the Al-Aqsa hospital, this attack claimed the lives of 37 people.
The Israeli military acknowledged it conducted the strike in the Nuseirat refugee camp that targeted the UN school, saying it killed 17 “terrorists” there.
In February, another rescue mission freed two hostages, but the health ministry in Hamas-ruled Gaza said heavy air strikes that accompanied that mission killed around 100 people in Rafah, southern Gaza.
