Friends of Almog Meir Jan, one of the four hostages released by Israel in Gaza, pose for a photo on June 8, 2024 in front of the Sheba Tel-HaShomer hospital in Ramat Gan, near Tel Aviv, where he was admitted with three other ex hostages, against a backdrop of war in the Gaza Strip, where a conflict pits Israel against the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas (AFP / JACK GUEZ)
The Israeli army announced that it had released four hostages on Saturday from a refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip where the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas reported 210 people killed.
On Saturday morning, during “a difficult special daytime operation in Nusseirat, four Israeli hostages were freed,” the Israeli army wrote earlier in a statement in the ninth month of war against Hamas.
They are Noa Argamani, 26 years old, Almog Meir Jan, 22 years old, Andrey Kozlov, 27 years old, and Shlomi Ziv, 41 years old, all four “abducted” from the site of the Nova electro music festival, during the The unprecedented attack carried out on Israeli soil by Hamas on October 7, which sparked hostilities, according to the army.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the release of the hostages was proof that Israel was not giving in “in the face of terrorism.”
A video posted on social media shows the emotional reunion between Noa Argamani and her father, as well as Israelis at the beach shouting with joy as they heard a lifeguard announce the release of the hostages.
The hostages, according to the army, are “in good health” and have been transferred to a medical center near Tel Aviv, “to carry out additional medical examinations”.
Israeli police announced the death of one of their officers as a result of his injuries during the operation to free the hostages.
For its part, Hamas announced on Saturday a toll of at least 210 dead and more than 400 injured in Israeli attacks on the Nousseirat camp. The Hamas statement did not mention the release of hostages.
The leader of the movement, Ismaïl Haniyeh, affirmed in a press release from Doha that the “resistance” would “continue”.
French President Emmanuel Macron welcomed the release of the four Israeli hostages, with his American counterpart Joe Biden assuring Saturday in Paris that the United States would continue to mobilize until “all” were released.
– “Miraculous” –
“Noa, Almog, Andrey and Shlomi, we are very happy to welcome you home,” Yoav Gallant, the Israeli Defense Minister, said on X.
A man takes an injured child on June 8, 2024 to al-Aqsa hospital in Deir al-Balah, after Israeli strikes in the center of the Gaza Strip, where a war pits Israel against the Palestinian movement Hamas (AFP / Bashar TALEB)
The Hostage Families Forum hailed a “miraculous triumph”, urging the government and the international community to secure the release of the remaining captives.
Before the announcement on the hostages, the Israeli army said on Saturday that it was targeting “terrorist infrastructure” in Nusseirat, while witnesses reported shots from drones and helicopters against the camp.
A spokesperson for the Al-Aqsa hospital in Deir al-Balah, near Nousseirat, Doctor Khalil al-Dakran, announced the death of 15 people in “intense Israeli strikes” which, according to him, caused dozens of others injured.
Intense clashes between the army and Palestinian fighters are taking place in the al-Bureij and neighboring al-Maghazi camps, according to witnesses.
Palestinians flee on June 8, 2024 from the east of Deir el-Balah, in the center of the Gaza Strip, where a war pits Israel against the Islamist movement Hamas (AFP / Eyad BABA)
In a statement, the Israeli army said it had struck “dozens of terrorist cells and infrastructure, including a tunnel located in a civilian structure” during operations in Bureij and Deir al-Balah.
– Strikes on Rafah –
In the south, artillery bombardments hit several areas of the town of Rafah, on the Egyptian border, according to local sources.
The attack carried out on October 7 by Hamas commandos infiltrated from Palestinian territory resulted in the deaths of 1,194 people, the majority civilians, according to an AFP count based on official data.
A man carrying pieces of wood recovered from the rubble of a destroyed building on his bicycle pushes his bicycle on June 8, 2024 in Deir al-Balah, in the center of the Gaza Strip, where a conflict pits Israel against the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas (AFP / Eyad BABA)
During this attack, 251 people were taken as hostages. After a short truce in November which allowed the release of around a hundred of them, 116 hostages are still being held in Gaza, of whom 41 are dead, according to the Israeli army.
Israel has vowed to destroy Hamas, which took power in Gaza in 2007 and which it considers a terrorist organization along with the United States and the European Union.
His army launched a deadly offensive in the small coastal territory. At least 36,801 Palestinians, mostly civilians, were killed, according to data from the Health Ministry of the Hamas-led Gaza government.
– Blinken expected in the region –
The conflict has devastated a large part of the Gaza Strip and uprooted most of its 2.4 million inhabitants who face the risk of famine. International aid, whose entry into Gaza is controlled by Israel, only reaches the territory in dribs and drabs.
Photo released by the Israeli army on June 6, 2024 of Israeli soldiers during operations in the Gaza Strip (Israeli Army / -)
While diplomatic efforts to achieve a truce stall, American Secretary of State Antony Blinken is expected next week in Israel, Egypt, Qatar and Jordan, to “promote a ceasefire proposal” presented recently by President Joe Biden, according to Washington.
According to the Wall Street Journal, citing sources familiar with the matter, Qatar and Egypt recently threatened Hamas officials with arrest and expulsion from Doha where they are based if they did not agree to a truce with Israel. .
In Israel, Benny Gantz, the former army chief who became Benjamin Netanyahu’s political rival, who was to announce his resignation from the war cabinet on Saturday evening, canceled his intervention shortly after the announcement of the release of the hostages.
He demanded the adoption of an “action plan” on the post-war period in the Gaza Strip, failing which he would be “forced to resign from the government”, which he had joined after October 7.
Mr. Netanyahu urged his rival not to leave his government, stressing that the time was for “unity and not division”.
