And why it’s getting some criticism.
Four people who were attending a music festival on Oct. 7 when they were abducted by Hamas are finally free. On Saturday, Israeli forces raided the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza to rescue 26-year-old Noa Argamani, 22-year-old Almog Meir Jan, 27-year-old Andrey Kozlov, and 41-year-old Shlomi Ziv.
This marked Israel’s most extensive rescue operation since its war with Hamas began. Israel had some help from an ally: National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan confirmed Sunday that the U.S. backed the raid. He declined to say precisely how due to security reasons, though two unnamed officials told CBS the U.S. provided intelligence support.
But the mission has been the subject of criticism after the Gaza Health Ministry said hundreds of Palestinians had been killed, marking one of the bloodiest days since the start of the conflict. Shortly after, Benny Gantz resigned from Israel’s war cabinet.
We took a closer look at the hostages who were brought home and how the dramatic rescue went down.
Who are the 4 hostages Israel rescued?
The four hostages were all kidnapped while attending the Nova music festival. The event was one of several targets for Hamas when it attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, and it became the site of the site of one of the largest civilian massacres in Israel. At least 360 attendees were killed, and dozens were kidnapped and taken into Gaza.
Noa Argamani
Argamani, a Chinese-born Israeli citizen, was abducted along with her boyfriend, Avinatan Or, whose whereabouts are still unknown. A video of Argamani’s abduction was among the first to surface. It showed her being taken away by motorcycle, terrified and pleading for her life.
According to Israel’s Channel 13, the 26-year-old told family members she went on to survive four near-death experiences during her kidnapping, including the operation during which she was rescued. She also described being moved between several apartments, and the few times she was allowed outside, she was disguised as an Arab woman.
After surviving the harrowing ordeal, new footage shows her embracing her father. It marked a particularly emotional reunion for Argamani — her mother has stage four brain cancer, and it was her dying wish to see her daughter one last time.
Almog Meir Jan
Meir Jan had recently completed his army services and was supposed to start a new job with a technology company the day after the Oct. 7 attack.
Sadly, Meir Jan’s father, Yossi, didn’t get to see his son’s long-awaited return. The day before the rescue, he passed away. It’s believed he died of a heart attack, though his family says he was brokenhearted by seeing what his son had to go through at the hands of Hamas. “My brother died of grief and didn’t get to see his son return,” his sister, Dina, told reporters.
Andrey Kozlov
Kozlov was working as a security guard at the festival. He was relatively new to Israel, having immigrated from Russia about a year and a half earlier.
Kozlov’s father told the press in a statement that thinking of his family and partner “were what kept him together during his captivity,” adding that “every day he thought of his family.”
Shlomi Ziv
Ziv was also working as a security guard and had gone to the music festival with two friends who were both killed, the Times of Israel reported. According to the Hostages Family Forum, Ziv is originally from a farming community in northern Israel.
Last year, his wife, Miren, remained hopeful about his return and the challenges following his release. “We will be receiving a person who we don’t know what he saw, what he experienced, what he knows and what he doesn’t know,” she told Seven10Stories, an initiative that has collected testimonials from survivors of Oct. 7.
Family members of the rescued hostages pleaded for the return of the remaining people held captive in Gaza. Almog Meir Jan’s mother Orit urged the Israeli government for a deal to release the remaining hostages. Noa Argamani’s father Yaakov told reporters, “We can’t forget there are 120 hostages. We must do everything, but everything, as soon as possible to bring them home, so that their families can embrace them in happiness.”
What happened during the raid?
The Israel Defense Forces had been planning the rescue for weeks. Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, a spokesperson for the Israel Defense Forces, said they trained with exact replicas of the apartments where the hostages were being held.
When the time came, officers of the National Police special anti-terror unit of Yamam, along with Shin Bet agents, simultaneously raided the two buildings to rush the hostages to safety.
Hagari said that entering the building where they found Argamani went smoothly, but agents were met with intense fire and rocket-propelled grenades when they went in to rescue Meir Jan, Kozlov, and Ziv. Israeli special forces officer Chief Inspector Arnon Zamora was critically hurt during the operation and later died of his injuries.
This likely won’t be Israel’s last raid — scores of hostages are believed to be held in densely populated areas or inside Hamas’ labyrinth of tunnels.
How many Palestinians were killed during the raid in Nuseirat?
At least 274 Palestinians were killed during Israel’s operation, and hundreds of others were injured, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry. A Hamas spokesperson called Saturday’s raid a “complex war crime,” and neighboring countries like Egypt have called it a violation of international law.
Instead of a nighttime raid, the IDF opted to strike in the morning, when civilians were out instead of at home. Residents described the attack as a “hell on earth,” with civilians being hit by airstrikes and shrapnel.
“We tried to get ambulances, but no one could enter as it was already a military zone,” a Palestinian man told CNN.
Shortly after the raid, local hospitals were flooded with bodies and injured people. Medics on the scene told The Associated Press that children who were brought in for medical attention were “completely gray or white from the shock.”
This comes as Israel faces international pressure to stop the civilian bloodshed. “They killed everything inside us,” said one woman who witnessed Saturday’s assault.
