“The diamond is in our hands”: with these words, after two hours of trepidation, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was informed yesterday by the Israeli counter-terrorism unit that a few minutes earlier, with a very high risk operation conducted in a crowded refugee camp in Gaza, four Israeli hostages kidnapped during the rave in the desert on October 7 were rescued. Despite two hours of heavy firefights with Hamas militiamen, the four remained unharmed and taken by helicopter to a hospital in Tel Aviv. “The distance between complete success and failure – Netanyahu then said, after welcoming them to the hospital – is that of a hair’s breadth. Furthermore, we have paid a heavy price.” In fact, Arnon Zamora, the commander of one of the two anti-terrorism units that went into action simultaneously at 11 am in two buildings in the Nusseirat refugee camp, in the center of the Strip, was killed in the fighting.
On 7 October the four – Noa Argamani (26), Almog Meir (22), Shlomi Ziv (39), Andrei Kuzlov (27), Russian citizen – were captured by Hamas while they were taking part in the Nova music festival near Kibbuz Reim. The frightened image of Noa as she was dragged by Hamas militiamen on motorbikes outside the festival area had gone around the world.
“Don’t kill me”, were her last words before being dragged away by the militiamen together with her boyfriend. In January, Hamas released a short film of her, and then – at the end of May – a second film in which (on the instructions of Hamas’ military wing) she begged the Israeli government not to let her die in captivity. Yesterday, in the Sheba hospital in Tel Aviv, she melted into the embrace of her father, who was celebrating her birthday. She was then taken to her mother Liora, a Chinese woman suffering from advanced cancer who in recent months had expressed only one wish: to see her daughter at least one last time. Noa told her loved ones that the house from which she was rescued belonged to a fairly wealthy family in Gaza. She explained that they gave her food when she asked for it and that she learned some Arabic with the Palestinian family.
In Israel the news of the release of the four sparked a spontaneous wave of enthusiasm. On the beaches and swimming pools, lifeguards updated the public on the latest news. Groups of jubilant people were seen in many streets. Others have taken steps to hang signs with updates at the exits of the synagogues, as religious people do not turn on the radio and TV during the Sabbath rest. The rescue operation of the four hostages (another 120 are still in the hands of Hamas) had been planned for months, and canceled three times because it was deemed too risky. In the last phase, the one started yesterday, 700 soldiers took part.
Intelligence had managed to locate Noa, in a room in a multi-storey building in Nusseirat, and the other three hostages in a building 200 meters away. The blitz necessarily had to be simultaneous, so as not to alarm the Hamas guardians. “I heard knocks on the door. In Hebrew they told me: ‘We are Tsahal’ (the Israeli army, ed.) and immediately they broke in.” This phase was lightning fast. Once the Hamas guards were killed, Noa was taken to a helicopter waiting nearby to be flown to Tel Aviv. An American cell also contributed to the success of the blitz, as revealed by CNN. By the way, Hamas has threatened retaliation on the mobile bridge set up by the US to bring aid to the Gaza Strip. And the militiamen always provide their own version of the military operation in Tel Aviv: some hostages apparently died during the firefight.
