Israel celebrates, cries with joy, returns to hope after the “heroic operation” which brought home four of the 124 hostages held captive in the Gaza Strip, including Noa Armagani, the young symbol of the horrors of Hamas, dragged away on a motorbike, screaming and crying from the Re’im rave on October 7, as she begged “don’t kill me” and was brutally separated from her boyfriend Avinatan Or, still a hostage in Gaza. “One of the most heroic and extraordinary operations in 47 years of service”, also defines it as former Chief of Staff Benny Gantz, minister of the Israeli War Cabinet, who decides to cancel the speech in which he would have announced his resignation by the government, saving, at least for now, the emergency executive led by Benjamin Netanyahu. The Prime Minister rejoices: «It is an operation that will remain in history. Israel does not give in to terrorism. We will not stop until we have brought all the abductees home.” And on X he addresses Gantz himself, inviting him not to leave the government: “We must remain united.”
A sense of euphoria crosses Israel, after eight months of war, at the news of the release of the 4 hostages of the Nova Festival: Noa Argamani, 26 years old, Almog Meir Jan, 22 years old, and the two rave security personnel, Andrey Kozlov, 27 years old , and Shlomi Ziv, 41, all home thanks to a joint operation by the special forces, in which – according to CNN – an American cell participated. The four were in separate buildings, Noa was in one, the three men in the other. Arnon Zamora, a special forces officer of the Israeli Border Police Yaman, was killed in action.
It is 11 in the morning on Saturday, Shabbat in Israel, when the army receives the order to operate in Nuseirat, in the center of the Strip, the scene of a harsh Israeli offensive for days. The operation was prepared for two weeks, the approval arrived on Thursday but the OK to operate came yesterday. The battle was followed by Netanyahu from the Shin Bet “war room” and fought against dozens of Hamas militiamen, so much so that the extremists speak of 210 victims between raids and clashes.
The President of the Republic Isaac Herzog and Prime Minister Netanyahu call Noa to welcome her back, after she has hugged her father again and before she moves to the Tel Aviv hospital where her mother, a terminal cancer patient, who for months she begs to be able to see her daughter one last time. “I hug you on behalf of the entire nation,” the head of state Herzog tells her. “We haven’t given up on you even for a moment – Netanyahu’s words – I don’t know if you believed it, but we believed it and I’m happy it happened.” She doesn’t, she admits that she is “very emotional” and that she misses speaking Hebrew.
The families of the hostages celebrate the “miraculous triumph”, but hundreds demonstrate for an agreement on the abductees and elections. Defense Minister Gallant promises to “keep fighting” for the hostages. Opposition leader Lapid abandons his harsh tone and speaks of “a great light lit in the terrible darkness”. The White House welcomes and insists on the conclusion of an agreement with Hamas.
Who dampens enthusiasm, claiming that other hostages were killed in the raid, that the action will have a “devastating” impact on those held captive. Up to the threat: «Resistance can increase the number of kidnapped».
