‘Ultimate surprise’: How an Israeli raid freed 4 hostages and killed scores of Palestinians in Gaza

‘Ultimate surprise’: How an Israeli raid freed 4 hostages and killed scores of Palestinians in Gaza
Palestinians walk and travel along a street, in an area where houses have been destroyed in Israeli strikes, amid the Israel-Hamas conflict, in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip, June 9, 2024. (Reuters)
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Updated 10 June 2024
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‘Ultimate surprise’: How an Israeli raid freed 4 hostages and killed scores of Palestinians in Gaza

‘Ultimate surprise’: How an Israeli raid freed 4 hostages and killed scores of Palestinians in Gaza
  • There have been back-to-back mass casualties as densely populated areas are bombed

KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip: They arrived in the middle of the day, when the squat concrete buildings of the Nuseirat refugee camp are stifling and the narrow streets outside are filled with people. No one suspected a thing until the shots rang out.
The Israeli raid caught everyone off guard, from the Hamas militants guarding four hostages in two different buildings to the thousands of civilians who soon found themselves running for their lives through a blistering crossfire.
By the time it was over, four Israeli hostages had been brought home alive and mostly unscathed, at least physically, and at least 274 Palestinians, and an Israeli commando, had been killed.
For Israel, it was the most successful operation of the eight-month war, bringing nationwide elation and removing some of the stain from the army’s unprecedented collapse on Oct. 7. For Palestinians, it was a day of horror that sent hundreds of dead and wounded flooding into already beleaguered hospitals.
Here’s how it unfolded, according to the Israeli military and Palestinian witnesses.
‘THE ULTIMATE SUPRISE’
Noa Argamani, a 26-year-old who had emerged as an icon of the hostage crisis, was being held in one apartment and three male hostages — Almog Meir Jan, 22, Andrey Kozlov, 27, and Shlomi Ziv, 41, were in another about 200 meters (yards) away. All had been abducted from a desert rave-turned-massacre site during the Oct. 7 attack that ignited the war.
They had been moved among different locations but were never held in Hamas’ notorious tunnels. At the time of their rescue they were in locked rooms guarded by Hamas gunmen. Israeli intelligence figured out where they were and commandos spent weeks practicing the raid on life-size models of the buildings, according to Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, the Israeli military spokesman.
“It needs to be like a surgical operation, like a brain operation,” he said.
He said they decided to strike at midday because it would be the “ultimate suprise,” and to target the two buildings simultaneously. Planners feared that if they hit one first, the captors would hear the commotion and kill the hostages in the other.
Hagari declined to say how the Israeli forces made their way to the heart of Nuseirat, a crowded, built-up refugee camp in central Gaza dating back to the 1948 Arab-Israeli war. Based on previous operations, at least some of the special forces who took part in the raid likely dressed like Palestinians and spoke fluent Arabic.
Kamal Benaji, a Palestinian displaced from Gaza City who was living in a tent in central Nuseirat, said he saw a small truck with a car in front and another behind pull up in front of a building on the street where he had pitched his tent.
The commandos sprang from the truck and one of them threw a grenade into the house. “Clashes and explosions broke out everywhere,” he said.
A VEHICLE GETS STUCK AND A FIREFIGHT ERUPTS
The rescue of Argamani seems to have gone smoothly, while the team extracting the three other hostages ran into trouble.
Chief Inspector Arnon Zamora, an officer in an elite police commando unit, was mortally wounded during the break-in, in which all the Hamas guards were killed, Amos Harel, a veteran defense correspondent, wrote in Israel’s Haaretz newspaper. Then the rescue vehicle carrying the three hostages got stuck in the camp, he said.
Palestinian militants armed with machine-guns and rocket-propelled grenades opened fire on the rescuers, as Israel called in heavy strikes from land and air to cover their evacuation to the coast. “A lot of fire was around us,” Hagari said.
It was this bombardment that appears to have killed and wounded so many Palestinians.
Mohamed Al-Habash, another displaced Palestinian, was in the Nuseirat market looking for humanitarian aid or inexpensive food when the heavy bombing began. He took cover with a half-dozen other people in a damaged home. He said many other houses were hit.
“We heard very loud bombing and heavy gunfire,” he said. “We saw many fighter jets flying over the area.”
The Israeli rescuers eventually made it to the coast. Zamora was evacuated by helicopter and later died of his wounds in a hospital. The military renamed the operation in his honor.
Footage released by the military showed soldiers walking the hostages along the beach toward the water and helicopters whipping up clouds of sand as they took off.
‘We called the hostages diamonds, so we say we have the diamonds in our hands,” Hagari said.
THE AFTERMATH
At the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in the nearby town of Deir Al-Balah, the dead and wounded arrived in waves — men, women and children. It’s one of the last functioning medical facilities in the area and was already packed with people wounded in heavy strikes in recent days.
Samuel Johann, a coordinator with the international charity Doctors Without Borders, which operates in the hospital, said it was a “nightmare.”
“There have been back-to-back mass casualties as densely populated areas are bombed. It’s way beyond what anyone could deal with in a functional hospital, let alone with the scarce resources we have here,” he said in a statement released by the group.
The Gaza Health Ministry said 274 Palestinians were killed and around 700 were wounded. The ministry does not distinguish between civilians and combatants in its tallies, but said the dead included 64 children and 57 women.
Khulood Shalaq, who was being treated at another hospital with her wounded 1-year-old nephew, said 14 members of her family were killed in the raid, with some still buried in the rubble. She said at one point she saw four helicopters launching missiles into the camp.
“The streets are filled with dead bodies,” she said.
Hamas later released a video claiming that three other hostages, including an American, were killed in the bombardment, but it provided no evidence. The army said it does “not respond to statements by terrorist organizations.”
Hamas and other militants are still holding some 120 hostages, around a third of whom are believed to have died. Hagari acknowledged that a ceasefire deal would bring home more hostages than military operations, but said Israeli forces need to “create conditions” to bring them home.
“We are doing things that are unimaginable, and we will keep on doing things that are unimagined,” he said.


Turkish court jails protesters over Erdogan speech disruption

Turkish court jails protesters over Erdogan speech disruption
Updated 56 min 44 sec ago
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Turkish court jails protesters over Erdogan speech disruption

Turkish court jails protesters over Erdogan speech disruption
  • The protesters said the government was failing to uphold its pro-Palestinian rhetoric
  • The Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office said the group had coordinated their actions inside and outside the venue and sought their detention pending trial

ANKARA: A Turkish court has jailed pending trial nine protesters who disrupted President Tayyip Erdogan’s speech in Istanbul last week, accusing his government of continuing oil exports to Israel despite a publicized embargo.
The incident occurred during Erdogan’s televised address at a forum on Friday, where the protesters said the government was failing to uphold its pro-Palestinian rhetoric.
They chanted slogans such as “Ships are carrying bombs to Gaza” and “Stop fueling genocide.”
Erdogan responded sharply.
“My child, don’t become the mouthpiece of Zionists here. No matter how much you try to provoke by acting as their voice, mouth, and eyes, you will not succeed,” he said.
“Zionists around the world know very well where Tayyip Erdogan stands. But it seems you still haven’t understood.”
Police removed the demonstrators from the event, and prosecutors charged them with insulting the president and participating in an illegal demonstration.
The Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office said the group had coordinated their actions inside and outside the venue and sought their detention pending trial.
The arrests have drawn strong criticism from opposition politicians and rights advocates. Main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader Ozgur Ozel denounced the detentions as a blow to democracy.
“The decision to arrest nine young people who protested Tayyip Erdogan proves the grave situation our country’s democracy has fallen into,” Ozel said.
“These young people were exercising their right to free expression and should be released immediately.”


Israeli leaders applaud Trump pledge on hostages, Gazans fear the worse

Israeli leaders applaud Trump pledge on hostages, Gazans fear the worse
Updated 03 December 2024
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Israeli leaders applaud Trump pledge on hostages, Gazans fear the worse

Israeli leaders applaud Trump pledge on hostages, Gazans fear the worse
  • Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said: “This is the way to bring back the hostages: by increasing the pressure and the costs for Hamas and its supporters“
  • Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said simply on X: “Thank you President Trump“

JERUSALEM/CAIRO: Israeli leaders hailed on Tuesday a pledge by US President-elect Donald Trump that there would be “hell to pay” in the Middle East unless hostages held in the Gaza Strip were released ahead of his Jan. 20 inauguration.
The reaction in Gaza was less enthusiastic.
Writing on Truth Social, and without naming any group, Trump said the hostages had to be freed by the time he was sworn in.
If his demand was not met, he said: “Those responsible will be hit harder than anybody has been hit in the long and storied History of the United States of America.”
During their deadly 2023 attack on Israel, Hamas-led militants captured more than 250 people. Some have been released or freed but around half of them are still in Gaza, although at least a third of these are believed to be dead.
Israeli ministers lined up to thank Trump for his hard-hitting words.
“How refreshing it is to hear clear and morally sound statements that do not create a false equivalence or call for addressing ‘both sides’, but rather clarify who are the good and who are the bad,” said Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich.
“This is the way to bring back the hostages: by increasing the pressure and the costs for Hamas and its supporters, and defeating them, rather than giving in to their absurd demands.”
Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said simply on X: “Thank you President Trump.”
Likewise the families of the missing hostages expressed their gratitude. “It is now evident to all: the time has come. We must bring them home NOW,” the families forum said.

NEGOTIATIONS STALLED
Israel and Hamas have held on-off negotiations since October 2023, but after an initial hostage release in November, little progress has been made with both sides blaming each other.
Responding to Trump’s post, senior Hamas official Basem Naim said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had sabotaged all efforts to secure a deal that involved exchanging the hostages for Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli prisons.
“Therefore, we understand (Trump’s) message is directed first at Netanyahu and his government to end this evil game,” he told Reuters.
Gaza political analyst Ramiz Moghani said Trump’s threat was directed at both Hamas and its backer Iran, and warned that it would embolden Israel to not expel Palestinians from swathes of Gaza but also annex the nearby, Israeli-occupied West Bank.
“These statements have serious implications for the Israeli war in Gaza and the West Bank,” he told Reuters.
Mohammed Dahlan, like hundreds of thousands of Gazans, has had to flee his house because of the fighting and is desperate for the war to end. But he said he was shocked by Trump.
“We were hoping that the new administration would bring with it a breakthrough .... but it seems (Trump) is in complete agreement with the Israeli administration and that there are apparently more punitive measures ahead,” he said.


Israel kills 23 people in north Gaza, orders evacuations in south

Israel kills 23 people in north Gaza, orders evacuations in south
Updated 03 December 2024
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Israel kills 23 people in north Gaza, orders evacuations in south

Israel kills 23 people in north Gaza, orders evacuations in south
  • Medics said eight people had been killed in a series of airstrikes in Beit Lahiya while four others were killed elsewhere in Gaza City
  • An Israeli airstrike later killed two people and wounded others in Jabalia

CAIRO: Israeli military strikes killed at least 23 Palestinians across the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, most of them in the town of Beit Lahiya on the northern edge, medics said, as the army issued new evacuation orders in the south of the small enclave.
Medics said eight people had been killed in a series of airstrikes in Beit Lahiya while four others were killed elsewhere in Gaza City.
An Israeli airstrike later killed two people and wounded others in Jabalia, the largest of Gaza’s eight historic refugee camps, in the coastal enclave’s north, medics said.
Another air attack, on Al-Falah School sheltering displaced families in Gaza City’s Zeitoun suburb, killed six people and wounded others, medics said, while in Rafah in the far south, three women were killed by Israeli drone fire, they added.
The Israeli army has been operating in Jabalia and also in the towns of Beit Lahiya and Beit Hanoun since October. Israeli forces have killed hundreds of militants in the three locations since the operation began, the army has said.
The army says it is targeting regrouping Hamas-led militants who often use civilian buildings including schools and hospitals for operational cover. Hamas denies this, accusing Israeli forces of indiscriminate bombardments.
Hamas and its smaller ally Islamic Jihad have said their fighters have killed several Israeli soldiers in guerrilla-style ambushes since October.
Palestinians have accused Israel’s army of trying to drive people from the northern edge of Gaza with forced evacuations and bombardments to create a buffer zone. The army denies this, saying it has returned there to prevent Hamas fighters from renewing operations in an area from which they had been cleared.
The Palestinian Civil Emergency Service said its operations in Jabalia, Beit Lahiya and Beit Hanoun had now been halted for nearly four weeks due to Israeli attacks on their teams as well as fuel shortages.
On Tuesday it said 13 of 27 vehicles in central and southern Gaza were also stuck for lack of fuel. It said 88 members of the Civil Emergency Service had been killed, 304 wounded and 21 detained by Israel since the
war began in October 2023.

EVACUATION ORDERS
The Israeli army issued evacuation orders on Tuesday to residents in northern districts of Khan Younis, a city in south Gaza, citing the firing of rockets by militants from those areas. The orders, the latest of many, prompted the hurried exodus of families, mostly before dawn, in a westerly direction.
“For your own safety, you must evacuate the area immediately and move to the humanitarian zone,” the army said in a statement on X.
Palestinian and United Nations officials say there are no safe areas in the enclave. Most of Gaza’s 2.3 million people have been internally displaced, some as many as 10 times in all.
Israel launched its campaign in the densely populated enclave after Hamas-led fighters attacked Israeli communities across the border on Oct. 7, 2023, killing 1,200 people and taking over 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.
Israel’s military campaign has since killed more than 44,400 Palestinians, injured many others, and reduced much of the enclave to rubble.


Retiring UN official laments lack of diplomatic focus on Palestinian state

Retiring UN official laments lack of diplomatic focus on Palestinian state
Updated 03 December 2024
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Retiring UN official laments lack of diplomatic focus on Palestinian state

Retiring UN official laments lack of diplomatic focus on Palestinian state
  • Tor Wennesland, special coordinator for Mideast peace process, criticizes short-term fixes
  • Warns against opponents of Palestinian sovereignty setting terms of debate

LONDON: World leaders have wrongly focused on short-term fixes at the expense of pushing for a Palestinian state, the UN’s special coordinator for the Middle East peace process has said.

Tor Wennesland, who is retiring after a four-year tenure, told the New York Times that the international community had focused on improving Gaza’s economy and diplomatic deals between Israel and Arab states, but that these approaches have failed to solve the central issue driving the conflict: the lack of a permanent settlement between Israel and the Palestinians.

“Politics failed. Diplomacy failed. The international community failed. And the parties failed,” he said. “What we have seen is the failure of dealing with the real conflict, the failure of politics and diplomacy.”

Western leaders have failed to convince Israel of the need for Palestinian sovereignty, having been distracted by migration crises, the COVID-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine, Wennesland added.

“Politics is what ends war, and diplomacy is what ends war,” he said, adding that international attention has been shifting “toward dealing with the day-to-day humanitarian situation, and with less attention on the politics.”

The perceived decline in the viability of the two-state solution among Western officials risks becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy as it allows opponents of Palestinian statehood to set the terms of debate, Wennesland said.

“The spoilers have been more effective, determined and fast moving than diplomats and politicians,” he added.


Gazans walk miles for bread and flour amid war shortages

Gazans walk miles for bread and flour amid war shortages
Updated 48 min 35 sec ago
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Gazans walk miles for bread and flour amid war shortages

Gazans walk miles for bread and flour amid war shortages
  • Every morning crowds form outside the few bakeries open in the Palestinian territory, as people desperately try to get a bag of bread at distribution points
  • Essential goods like water, fresh produce and medicines are also scarce

GAZA: Faced with major food shortages after nearly 14 months of war, Palestinians describe long days hunting for flour and bread in the conflict-ravaged Gaza Strip.
Every morning crowds form outside the few bakeries open in the Palestinian territory, as people desperately try to get a bag of bread at distribution points.
Since the outbreak of war in Gaza last year, charities and international aid organizations have repeatedly warned of crisis levels of hunger for nearly two million people.
A United Nations-backed assessment last month warned of famine looming in the northern Gaza Strip amid a near-halt in food aid after Israel launched an offensive in the area.
Essential goods like water, fresh produce and medicines are also scarce.
Gazans across the territory have told AFP in recent months how they wake up at the crack of dawn just to ensure they can get some flour or bread, with current availability reaching an all-time low.
In the southern city of Khan Yunis, AFP photographers saw dozens of people at a distribution point, bodies pressed against each other.
Over each other’s heads, everyone tries to reach out as far as possible to grab the round bread.
A small child, her face covered in tears, squeezes a coin between her fingers as she makes her way through the crowd of adults.
“I walked about eight kilometers (five miles) to get bread,” Hatem Kullab, a displaced Palestinian living in a neighborhood of makeshift tents, told AFP.
It was in the middle of one of these crowds that two women and a child were trampled to death in a stampede at a bakery in the central Gazan city of Deir el-Balah Friday.
“To get a loaf of bread you need a whole day of eight to 10 hours,” said the brother of one of the women killed, describing his sister’s ordeal as she tried to get bread to feed 10 family members.
“The suffering that my sister went through is suffered by all the Palestinian people,” Jameel Fayyad told AFP, criticizing what he described as poor management of the bakeries.
Fayyad’s anger was largely directed at Israel, but he also blamed the World Food Programme (WFP) and “traders who want to make money on the backs of people.”
Palestinians from across the Gaza Strip told AFP journalists that it is extremely difficult to find the 50-kilogram (110 pounds) bags of flour that would last them several weeks before the war.
“There is no flour, no food, no vegetables in the markets,” Nasser Al-Shawa, 56, said, who, like most residents, was forced to leave his home because of the bombings and lives with his children and grandchildren in central Gaza.
Shawa, who now lives in a friend’s house in Deir el-Balah, says a 50-kilogram bag costs between 500 and 700 shekels ($137 and $192).
Before the war, it cost around 100 shekels.
Inside Gaza where more than half of the buildings have been destroyed, the production is at an almost complete standstill. Flour mills, warehouses storing flour and industrial bakeries are unable to function because they have been so heavily damaged by strikes.
Humanitarian aid is trickling in but aid groups have repeatedly slammed the many constraints imposed on them by Israel, which the country denies.
In the latest blow, the UN agency supporting Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) announced Sunday it was halting aid deliveries to Gaza via a key crossing point with Israel.
UNRWA said delivery had become impossible, partly due to looting by gangs.
For Layla Hamad, who lives in a tent with her husband and seven children in southern Gaza’s Al-Mawasi, UNRWA’s decision was “like a bullet to the head.”
She said her family had regularly received “a small quantity” of flour from UNRWA.
“Every day, I think we will not survive, either because we will be killed by Israeli bombing or by hunger,” she said. “There is no third option.”
The majority of private companies that Israel had in the past allowed to bring in food to Gaza say they are no longer able to do so.
The war in Gaza broke out after Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attack on southern Israel, which resulted in the deaths of 1,208 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official data.
Israel’s retaliatory military campaign in Gaza has killed at least 44,502 deaths, also mostly civilians, according to data from Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry that the UN considers reliable.