Among them also the young Noa Argamani, kidnapped at the Nova Festival. She celebrates Israel but in Nuseirat it is a lake of blood. Abu Mazen requests urgent UN meeting
Shin Ben and the IDF recovered four of the hostages held by Hamas in an operation in the center of the Gaza Strip, which hit the settlements of Nuseirat, Deir al-Balah and al-Zawaideh. The four prisoners had been kidnapped at the Nova Festival during the militia group’s offensive on 7 October. The Israeli operation, prepared for weeks, was definitively approved on Thursday evening and involved hundreds of members of the armed forces and services, as well as the Special Anti-Terrorism Unit of the National Police: according to the CNN, “an American cell” also collaborated. Despite this, however, the blitz took place in a pool of blood. The Israeli armed forces bombed and fired artillery shells from the sky (with helicopters), from the ground (with tanks) and from the sea with navy ships to clear the area for the intervention of special units. In the military operation they killed over 210 Palestinian civilians according to the Gaza Ministry of Health and injured more than four hundred. A massacre for which the president of the Palestinian Authority Abu Mazen has requested an urgent meeting of the UN Security Council. “There is blood everywhere”, said the staff of Al Aqsa hospital, describing what happened a few hours ago as the largest massacre of Palestinians in nine months.
The head of the political bureau of Hamas, Ismail Haniyeh, accuses Israel of having carried out “a massacre against women and children” and underlines that it does not want to accept any truce agreement that does not guarantee the safety of the inhabitants of the Strip. “Our people will not give up and the resistance will continue to defend our rights in the face of this criminal enemy,” he attacks. In a statement posted on Telegram, the organization says that the US participation in the raids demonstrates how Washington is “complicit and completely involved in the war crimes being perpetrated”.
Among the freed prisoners is the 25-year-old Noa Argamani, who had appeared in one of the symbolic videos of 7 October while, torn away from her boyfriend and taken away on a motorbike, she begged the militiamen not to murder her. More recently, in January, she appeared in another Hamas propaganda film.
The others released are the 21-year-old Almog Meir Janthe 27 year old Andrey Kozlov and the forty year old Shlomi Ziv: all were visited by the prime minister and the head of state in hospital. “The hostages were rescued from two different locations during the operation in the heart of Nuseirat. Their medical conditions are normal and they have been transferred to Sheba-Tel Hashomer Medical Center for further medical tests. The security forces continue to operate with all efforts to rescue the abductees,” informed a joint statement from the army and services. The Tel Aviv police announced the death of the commander of the Anti-Terrorism unit, the chief inspector, in the operation Arnon Zamora. According to Israeli government estimates, the hostages taken by the Islamist group are 253 in total: of these, 112 were freed as part of agreements reached in recent months or taken to safety. It is estimated that fewer than eighty are still alive.
“Once again you have demonstrated that Israel does not surrender to terrorism and acts with an audacity that knows no bounds to bring our hostages home,” Netanyahu said, addressing the Israeli forces. “We are committed to doing so in the future as well. We will not give up until we have completed the mission and brought home all our hostages, both alive and dead. And I want to repeat and clarify that we will bring everyone home”, he assured. After the news of the successful blitz, spontaneous demonstrations of joy erupted throughout the country. War Cabinet Minister and Leader of the Opposition Benny Gantz in the meantime, he canceled the press conference announced for this evening, in which he was supposed to communicate his decisions after the expiry of the ultimatum given to Netanyahu for a change of policy on the war under penalty of leaving the government: “My heart is full of joy for the return of Noa, Andrey, Almog and Shlomi,” he said.
Photo © Imagoeconomica
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