By Maayan Lubell and Nidal al-Mughrabi
JERUSALEM/CAIRO (Reuters) – Israeli forces freed four hostages held by Hamas since October in an attack in the central Gaza Strip on Saturday, while at least 93 Palestinians were killed in an airstrike in the same area, in one of the bloodiest incidents. war, according to local medics.
It was not immediately clear if the rescue of the hostages and the Israeli airstrikes were part of the same operation, but both took place in Al-Nuseirat, an area built up and often shelled during the eight-month war between Israel and Gaza. manage Hamas.
An Israeli military spokesman said the hostage-rescue operation was carried out in the middle of a residential area, where he said Hamas was hiding the captives among Gazan civilians guarded by armed militants.
Israeli forces returned fire, including airstrikes, the spokesman, Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, added. One Israeli special forces soldier was killed during the operation, police said.
Israel 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 a medical check-up, the military said.
They were all abducted from the Nova music festival during deadly attacks by the Palestinian militant group Hamas on Israeli towns and villages near Gaza on October 7, an attack that sparked a devastating war in the besieged territory by Hamas.
Hamas attacks have killed around 1,200 people, according to Israeli authorities, and Israel’s subsequent bombing and invasion of Gaza has killed at least 36,801 Palestinians, according to a tally updated by the enclave’s health ministry on Saturday.
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Palestinian militants took about 250 hostages back to Gaza on October 7. There are now 116 still in Gaza, according to Israel’s tally, including at least 40 who were declared dead by Israeli authorities.
Israel News 12 aired footage of Argamani reuniting with his father, smiling and hugging him. The video of Argamani’s abduction, shows him shouting “Don’t kill me!” when he was taken to Gaza by motorbike, it had spread shortly after he was captured on October 7.
A smiling Argamani was shown speaking on Saturday by phone to Israeli President Isaac Herzog from the hospital, where he was surrounded by family and friends, in footage released by the president’s office.
“Thank you for everything, thank you for this moment,” he said.
“I’m so happy to hear your voice, it brings tears to my eyes… welcome home,” Herzog said.
A different picture unfolded in Gaza, where Palestinian health ministry officials and local medics said the Israeli military offensive in Nuseirat had killed many people including women and children. The ministry did not say how many of the dead were fighters.
Ismail Al-Thawbta, director of the Hamas-run government media office, told Reuters that the number of Palestinians killed in Nuseirat and nearby areas had risen to 93.
BLOODY SCENES
Social media footage that could not be immediately verified by Reuters showed bodies littering the blood-stained streets.
“It’s like a horror movie but this is a real massacre. Drones and Israeli warplanes fire all night randomly on houses and people trying to flee the area,” said Ziad, 45, a paramedic and resident of Nuseirat, who gave only his first name. front.
The bombs targeted a local market and the Al-Awda mosque, he told Reuters via a messaging app.
“For the release of four Israelis killed dozens of innocent civilians,” he said.
Emergency response teams tried to transport the dead and wounded to hospitals in the city of Deir al-Balah, but many bodies were still lying on the streets, including around the market district, Ziad and other residents said.
Nuseirat, a historic Palestinian refugee camp, has been the subject of heavy Israeli bombing during the war as well as fierce ground fighting in the eastern region.
The war in Gaza shows no signs of slowing down despite Israel’s main ally the United States pushing 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 ravaged the wider Middle East, drawing in Hamas’s main backer, Iran and its armed Lebanese ally Hezbollah, which Israeli officials have threatened to fight on Israel’s northern border.
