Four Hostages From Brutal Music Festival Attack Rescued In Gaza Operation
Four Israeli hostages who were abducted during the vicious assault on a music festival were rescued in an IDF operation in Gaza.
The assault on the Nova Music Festival was one of the most harrowing and horrifying moments in the surprise terrorist attacks of October 7 that sparked the ongoing Israel-Hamas War.
On Saturday, news broke that four Israelis taken hostage — Noa Argamani, Almog Meir Jan, Andrey Kozlov and Shlomi Ziv — have been rescued. From CNN:
Four hostages have been freed in a special operation in the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, Israel’s military says.
Noa Argamani, 25, Almog Meir Jan, 21, Andrey Kozlov, 27, and Shlomi Ziv, 40, were rescued by the Israeli military, intelligence and special forces from two separate locations in Nuseirat, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said Saturday.
All four were kidnapped from the Nova music festival on October 7, according to the IDF.
“They are in good medical condition and have been transferred to the ‘Sheba’ Tel-HaShomer Medical Center for further medical examinations,” the IDF added.
Rescuing hostages taken during the Hamas attacks of October 7 remains a major goal of the Israeli military campaign in Gaza.
This is the third such successful operation. IDF Corporal Ori Megidish was rescued in October last year from the northern Gaza Strip. In another operation on February 12 this year, Fernando Marman and Louis Har were rescued from southern Rafah.
Argamani was one of the best-known remaining hostages and appeared in a series of Hamas propaganda videos released in January.
IDF Spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said “The IDF and Yamam infiltrated two facilities while under fire by Hamas terrorists. A Yamam soldier was seriously injured in the operation and has just reached the hospital. We pray for his well-being.”
He added:
This operation was a success in rescuing and returning four hostages.
We will continue to do everything to return the 120 hostages still held in Gaza. We are confident that we will reach you, and this operation will not end until you are returned home.
We will not give up on a single hostage.
The rescue was accompanied by Israeli bombardments that killed dozens of Palestinians, according to The New York Times:
Israeli forces rescued four hostages who had been held in Gaza since the Hamas-led attack on Oct. 7, the military said. The news of the operation in central Gaza on Saturday was met with jubilation in Israel, where fear for the fate of the roughly 120 remaining captives has been rising after eight months of war.
During the rescue operation, the Israeli air force struck the town of Nuseirat, where the hostages were rescued, and residents reported intense bombardments. Khalil Daqran, an official at a hospital, told reporters that dozens of Palestinians had been killed and that the hospital’s wards and corridors were packed with the wounded.
Daniel Hagari, the Israeli military spokesman, told reporters that the rescue mission took place around 11 a.m. Saturday, when forces located the four hostages in two separate buildings where they were being held by Hamas militants in Nuseirat. He said the Israeli forces came under fire but managed to safely extract the hostages in two helicopters.
Watch coverage of the rescue above via CNN.
