Palestinians say 50 dead in Israeli attack as Israel rescues four hostages in Gaza

CAIRO/JERUSALEM:

Israel’s military said it rescued four hostages held since October in a raid in the central Gaza Strip on Saturday, while Palestinian officials said an Israeli attack in the same area killed more than 50 people.

It was not immediately clear whether the hostage rescue and the deadly Israeli attack were part of the same operation, but both took place in al-Nuseirat, an often-fought area in the eight-month war between Israel and Gaza’s ruling Hamas.

The Israeli military named the rescued hostages as Noa Argamani, 25, Almog Meir Jan, 21, Andrey Kozlov, 27, and Shlomi Ziv, 40. They were taken to hospital for medical checks and were in good health, the military said.

They were all kidnapped from the Nova music festival during the Palestinian group Hamas’ deadly raid on Israeli towns and villages near Gaza on October 7, an attack that accelerated the devastating war in the besieged Hamas enclave.

The Hamas raid killed about 1,200 people, according to Israeli authorities, and Israel’s subsequent bombardment and invasion of Gaza killed at least 36,801 Palestinians, according to an updated tally by the enclave’s health ministry on Saturday.

Palestinian militants took about 250 hostages back to Gaza on October 7. There are 116 left in Gaza, according to Israeli counts, including at least 40 whom Israeli authorities have declared dead.

Also read: Israeli airstrike kills Gaza mayor at water pumping station

Israeli News 12 aired footage of Argamani reuniting with her father, smiling and hugging him. The video of Argamani’s abduction was released soon after she was captured in Gaza by gunmen on October 7.

The Israeli military said earlier on Saturday that it was targeting resistance infrastructure in al-Nuseirat, an unusual announcement because it normally does not report on its operations while they are still underway.

Al-Nuseirat, a historic Palestinian refugee camp, has suffered heavy Israeli shelling during the war and there has also been fierce ground fighting in its eastern areas.

Gaza’s health ministry meanwhile said on Saturday that Israeli military attacks on al-Nuseirat killed and wounded dozens of people, including women and children. The ministry did not say how many of the dead were militants.

A health ministry official put the death toll at more than 50, saying emergency teams were trying to take the dead and wounded to hospital in the nearby city of Deir al-Ballah, but many bodies were still lying on the streets, including purchase. area.

Andrei Kozlov, a freed hostage, reacts after the military said Israeli forces rescued four hostages alive from the central Gaza Strip on Saturday, in Ramat Gan, Israel, June 8, 2024. PHOTO: REUTERS

Residents of the area said al-Nuseirat had come under heavy Israeli drone and airstrikes and that women and children were among the dead.

Israeli military spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Haggari said the rescue operation took place under fire in the heart of a residential neighborhood where he said Hamas was hiding captives among Gazan civilians under armed militant guard.

In a televised press conference, Hagari said an Israeli soldier was seriously wounded. Israeli forces returned fire, Haggari said, including with airstrikes.

The war in Gaza shows no signs of slowing down, even as Israel’s main ally the United States pushes for a ceasefire and a deal that would free the remaining hostages held by Hamas in exchange for the release of Palestinians imprisoned in Israel.

The war has destabilized the wider Middle East, drawing in Hamas’ main backer Iran and its heavily armed Lebanese ally Hezbollah, with whom Israeli officials are threatening to go to war on Israel’s northern border.