AGI – Four Israeli hostages They were saved by the Israeli army in a blitz conducted by the IDF in the center of the Strip Gazareports the Times of Israel.
Noa Argamani, Almog Meir Jan, Andrey Kozlov and Shlomi Ziv were kidnapped by Hamas on October 7 while attending the Supernova music festival near the southern community of Reim.
The special forces did simultaneously raided two Hamas sites in Nuseirat. Meir Jan, Kozlov and Ziv were all together in a hideout. The hostages are all in good condition, according to initial medical assessments. They were taken to Tel Hashomer Hospital for further evaluation. During the operation, heavy air strikes were carried out in the area against Hamas sites and in support of ground troops. Hamas health authorities reported a “large number” of casualties.
Noa Argamani, 25 years old, it’s the girl who appears screaming in terror in a video taken by one of the kidnappers who put her on a motorbike to take her to Gaza. Her terminally ill mother had repeatedly begged to see her before she died. Almog Meir Jan, 21 years old, he had finished his military service three months before his capture. He was also picked up from the party.
Andrey Kozlov, 27 years old, he was working as a security guard at the rave when he was caught. He is a new immigrant to Israel, where he had arrived about a year and a half ago. Shlomi Ziv, 40, like Kozlov worked security at the desert party. He had gone to the Supernova with Aviv Eliyahu, a relative of his wife, and Jake Marlowe, a friend, both killed in the Hamas raid.
Nuseirat, named after a local Bedouin tribe, hosted 85,409 Palestinian refugees registered with UNRWA before the war. As in the case of other refugee camps, the availability and quality of water in Nuseirat camp are also a cause for concern. Before the conflict there were 17 installations of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, 15 buildings hosting a total of 26 schools, a food distribution center shared with the Bureij refugee camp, two health centers, two relief offices and local social services, a maintenance and sanitization office.
Even before the war the camp, which like all the others suffers from a very high rate of unemployment among the population, faced problems of electricity cuts, fishing limits imposed by Israel, high population density, lack of building materials. Overcrowding and a lack of living space characterize the Nuseirat camp. The shelters are built next to each other and there is a general lack of recreational and social spaces. In many cases, residents have had to add extra floors to their shelters to accommodate their families.
A senior Hamas official, Sami Abu Zuhri, called the release of four prisoners after nine months of fighting “a sign of failure, not an achievement”, the Times of Israel reports, citing Reuters. It is the third time that security forces have managed to save live hostages in the Gaza Strip. President Isaac Herzog and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called Noa Argamani to welcome her home, the Times of Israel reports. In the minute-long phone call, Herzog expressed her happiness as the 26-year-old flashed a big smile and thanked the president. “I embrace you on behalf of the entire nation of Israel,” Herzog told her.
Netanyahu asked her how she feels. “Very excited,” the girl responded, expressing her excitement at conversing in Hebrew after so long. “Jewish and at home, this is also important,” the prime minister responded, “We have not given up on you even for a moment, “I don’t know if you believed it, but we believed it and I’m happy that it happened.”
