(UnitedVoice.com) – On October 7, 2023, Hamas terrorists kidnapped more than 200 people from Israel and killed almost 1,200. The terrorist group is still holding approximately 120 hostages, but the Israeli government managed to rescue four of them.
On Saturday, June 8, Israeli forces carried out the largest rescue operation since the conflict began. Authorities called the raid Operation Seeds of Summer. Undercover operatives from Yamam, the Israeli anti-terrorism unit, carried out raids on two apartments in a refugee camp in Nuseirat.
According to reports, the streets were busy with people at a nearby market. Videos of the incident showed people diving for cover as gunfire erupted. Officials found the hostages locked in rooms that were surrounded by guards. Israeli commandos forced their way in, then bundled them up, and placed them in military vehicles that were waiting outside.
The rescuers managed to save 26-year-old Noa Argamani, 27-year-old Andrey Kozlov, 22-year-old Almog Meir Jan, and 41-year-old Shlomi Ziv. A helicopter touched down in the area and extracted the rescued hostages. An Israeli Army spokesman called it a “complex” mission that was “like a surgical brain operation.”
The Israeli Defense Force’s chief spokesperson, Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, told the BBC that the commandos trained for the operation in great detail. They even built mock-ups of the two apartments where the victims were being held.
Reports indicate civilians were killed in the raid. Doctors at two hospitals reported at least 70 people. Some of the victims were women and children. The Gaza Health Ministry, which is run by Hamas, claimed more than 274 Palestinians died and nearly 700 suffered injuries.
The four Israeli hostages are now back home with their families. Noa Argamani is with her terminally ill mother, eight months after gunmen kidnapped her from the Nova music festival. Her mom is suffering from stage four cancer, and her dying wish was to see her daughter again.
Copyright 2024, UnitedVoice.com
