Noor to Argamani, Almog Meir Jan, Andrey Kozlov, and Shlomi Ziv. They are the 4 hostages freed by the Israeli army in an operation in the center of the Gaza Strip. They were kidnapped on October 7 during the Hamas attack on the Supernova music festival. The operation was conducted by special forces who carried out simultaneous raids on Hamas sites in Nuseirat (VIDEO). Upon initial medical evaluation, the medical conditions of the four appeared good, but they have now been taken to hospital for further checks.
Noa, the symbolic hostage of October 7, has been freed
Among the 4 freed hostages is Noa, the 25-year-old Israeli kidnapped by Hamas during the festival and who became a symbol of October 7, who then hugged her father again on the bus that took her to the Tel Hashomer hospital immediately after being freed together to the other three hostages (VIDEO). This is what a video posted on social media shows.
Noa was kidnapped last October at a rave in the Negev desert. The 25-year-old student had become one of the best-known faces of the crisis after the spread of the video in which she was taken away by Hamas on the back pillion of a motorcycle, snatched from her boyfriend’s hands. A ten-second clip in which the girl is seen in tears. Noa’s mother is an oncology patient with a brain tumor. Her greatest wish in recent months has been to live long enough to see her daughter home again. Today the images of Noa’s embrace with her father Yaakov were released.
“We didn’t give you up for lost even for a moment. I don’t know if you believed it, but we believed it and I’m happy that it happened.” This is what Benjamin Netanyahu said in his phone call with the girl, which occurred shortly after her release.
“Reconnect with your family, and hug your mother too,” added the Israeli prime minister, speaking to the girl who said she was “very excited” to speak Hebrew again. “In Hebrew and at home this is important,” Netanyahu added. President Isasc Herzog also spoke to Noa, telling her that she “embraces her on behalf of the entire nation of Israel.”
Andrei, kidnapped while taking care of security at the rave
Together with Noa, Almog and Shlomi, Andrei Kozlov, another of the Supernova participants, was also freed. Kozlov, who is 27 years old, born in St. Petersburg, and had only moved to Israel a year and a half ago last fall, was working security at the event. At the time of the Hamas raid, he was communicating via text messages with his father, who he told him he could hear gunfire around him. He had written a dramatic message to some friends in which he declared that he had nowhere to hide. The Russian Foreign Minister, Sergei Lavrov, also spoke out for his release, as well as that of three other hostages with Russian citizenship, Aleksandr Lobanov and Aleksandr Trufanov. Kozlov had come to Israel on a Masa internship program. He lived in Rishon Lezion, outside Tel Aviv. His mother moved to Israel after his kidnapping.
Almog and Shlomi, who are the other freed hostages
Almog Meir, 21, and Shlomi Ziv, 41, were also kidnapped at the rave. Meir, like Noa, was at the rave as a guest, Ziv, like Kozlov, to work. Ziv, married for 17 years with his wife Meran, is an interior designer and was about to start a new job when he accepted another one, to help his wife’s cousin, Aviv Eliyahu, at the festival. The latter, who was director of security, was killed. Meir is a resident of Or Yehuda in central Israel. He was excited for the Rave that he had been waiting for for months. At 7.45 in the morning on October 7, he called her mother, Orit, to ask her to turn on the television. “The army ended the party. There are rockets coming from all directions and shooting at us. I don’t know what’s happening but I will try to call you every hour. I love you,” she told her.
Hamas: “210 Palestinians killed in the blitz”
At least 210 people were killed and more than 400 injured in the IDF raid. Khalil Al-Dakran, director of the al-Aqsa hospital in Deir al-Balah, in the central area of Gaza, told Xinhua that many wounded Palestinians were sent to the hospital, and that some of them were confirmed dead. In a statement on Saturday, the Al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, denounced the Israeli assault in the Nuseirat area as “a complex war crime”. Ismail Haniyeh, head of Hamas’s political bureau, also condemned the deadly Israeli attack, stressing that the Palestinian people “will not give up and the resistance will continue to defend their rights.” The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said the hostage rescue operation had been planned for weeks and was conducted jointly by the army with the elite police unit and the Shin Bet intelligence body, underlining that a police officer was killed during the operation.
Gantz freezes his resignation
After the news of the release of the four hostages, the war cabinet minister, Benny Gantz, instead canceled the speech during which, according to all predictions, he would have announced the withdrawal of his party’s support for the Netanyahu government. “My thoughts go to all the families of the hostages, we are committed to doing everything we can to bring them home”, said the minister, declaring that he had “a full heart” for the release of the four hostages today in Gaza. “I want to commend the soldiers of the Israeli forces, Yaman, Shin Bet for the complicated and courageous operation which was admirably planned and executed,” he added. “Alongside the justified joy for the result achieved, we must remember – he underlined a few minutes after the tweet with which Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu urged him not to leave the war cabinet – that all the challenges that Israel must face have remained as they are . Therefore, I say to the Prime Minister and all the leadership, even today we must responsibly consider how it is best and possible to move forward from here.”
