The IDF has successfully completed a rescue operation that brought home hostages taken by Hamas operatives from the NOVA music festival massacre on October 7, 2023.
Noa Argamani, 25, Almog Meir, 21, Andrey Kozlov, 27, and Shlomi Ziv, 40, are on their way back home after 246 days in captivity, announced Defense Minister Yoav Gallant.
“IDF, ISA and Special Forces conducted a complex, heroic operation to rescue four hostages held by Hamas in Gaza and brought them home to Israel. We will keep fighting until 120 hostages are home,” Gallant writes on X.
Hamas kidnapped some 250 hostages during its attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7, where terrorist operations killed 1,200 people, triggering the Israel-Hamas war. The four hostages were rescued by Shin Bet and IDF fighters from two different locations during the operation in the heart of Nuseirat.
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About half were released in a weeklong cease-fire in November. Israel says more than 130 hostages remain, with about a quarter of those believed dead, and divisions are deepening in the country over the best way to bring them home.
The rescue comes as international pressure mounts on Israel to limit civilian bloodshed in its war in Gaza, which reached its eighth month on Friday. Seeking a breakthrough in the apparently stalled cease-fire negotiations between Israel and Hamas, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken will return to the Middle East next week.
Noa Argamani's mom, Liora Argamani, 61, also known as Li Chonghong, is facing imminent death from stage four brain cancer and had just one wish — to see her daughter Noa one last time.
The young woman was able to reunite with her father in a touching moment on her way to the hospital. A video shows them hugging as she sits in a chair. A second video released by Israeli media shows her sitting on a couch, en route to a hospital, speaking on the phone and smiling.
Meanwhile, news of the incredible rescue was announced all over Israel, sending people out celebrating in the streets. Videos on social media show lifeguards announcing the news on loudspeakers to unanimous applause. Other videos show dancing and celebrating outside the former hostage's homes.
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The IDF further tweeted thath, "Their medical condition is normal and they have been transferred for further medical examinations at the Tel Hashomer Sheba Medical Center. The security forces will continue to act in all efforts to recover the abductees."
The area where the hostages were found, in two seperate locations, Nuseirat, is a Palestinian refugee camp in the middle of the Gaza Strip, five kilometers north-east of Deir al-Balah. The refugee camp is in the Deir al-Balah Governorate in the Gaza Strip. The area is facing heavy bombardment as Israel seeks to destroy what's left of Hamas infrastructure in the area.
Two men were rescued in February when troops stormed a heavily guarded apartment in a densely packed town and another hostage, a woman, was rescued in the aftermath of October’s attack. Israeli troops have so far recovered at least 16 bodies of hostages from Gaza, according to the government.