New details about Israel’s daring rescue of four hostages are emerging as the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) describes the daytime operation as a “risky, complex mission” that was “surgical” in precision.
The mission was planned for weeks using “precise intelligence” and took place around 11 a.m. local time in the heart of Nuseirat in central Gaza, the admiral said. Daniel Hagari of the IDF.
Officers from the Yamam National Police Special Anti-Terrorism Unit, together with Shin Bet operatives, simultaneously raided two Hamas buildings to rescue the three male hostages and one female hostage. The soldiers had undergone weeks of intensive training in preparation for the rescue mission, Hagari said.
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Noa Argamani, 26, was rescued from one location, while Almog Meir Jan, 22, Shlomi Ziv, 41, and Andrey Kozlov, 27, were rescued from the second location. Argamani has been one of the most recognized hostages since video of her kidnapping was one of the first to surface. She is seen in the video between two men on a motorcycle with one arm extended and the other pressed as she screams, “Don’t kill me!”
Dramatic aerial footage from this morning’s rescue effort shows Meir Jan, Kozlov and Ziv running with Israeli troops to a waiting helicopter before the helicopter takes off to take them to safety.
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During the operation, Chief Inspector Arnon Zmora, 36, an officer of the Yamam Special Anti-Terrorism Unit, was seriously injured and later died of his wounds. He leaves behind a wife and two children.
Fewer than 100 Palestinians were killed in the raid, Hagari said.
Hagari said Hamas has been holding hostages in civilian buildings, and that Israeli intelligence was able to locate two of these buildings in Nuseirat where families were staying with armed guards.
The buildings were about 200 meters apart, and Israeli forces decided to storm both buildings at the same time because they feared that Hamas would kill hostages in one of the buildings if they saw the other being attacked.
“This is a huge risk because they may have thought we were preparing for another attack,” Hagari said. “You have to understand that they are moving the hostages from apartment to apartment.”
Hagari said the decision to carry out the mission during the day also introduced an element of surprise, as Hamas had not expected this.
“During the day you take more risks to ensure that the element of surprise is maintained, and we understood that this would give us leverage in the flats,” Hagari said. “We completely surprised them, but it was still difficult,” he said.
The order to leave was given at 11 a.m. and the attack began 25 minutes later, he said.
Israeli forces exchanged gunfire with the guards in the building holding the three male hostages. In the crossfire, Zmora was injured and later died at a hospital, Hagari said.
“He is a warrior who gave his life because he brought four hostages home alive,” Hagari said of Zmora.
As soldiers exited the building, they were also met with gunfire and RPG fire, which caused their vehicle to become stuck. Other troops came to their aid and helped them flee.
The hostages were then taken to two helicopters, with the second of those helicopters taking the three hostages and Zmora.
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Hagari said the command room where the mission was conducted was tense, while “hundreds of fighters” were needed in the area to carry out the operation.
“This is a surgical operation, like a brain operation; it has to be so precise. Imagine it’s on a civilian street with a lot of people with trucks and cars,” Hagari said.
Hagari said fewer than 100 Palestinian victims had been reported, and he was unsure how many of them were terrorists.
“But they used the civilians to close them in with the hostages. They used the civilians to shoot at the Israeli forces as they went out. And during the operation at this level, so many fires involved a lot of violence. We had to fire from the air and from the street,” Hagari said.
“And some of the victims were terrorists in the [prepared] targets we had, and the air force carried out the fire during the operation.”
In preparation for the mission, Hagari said the Israeli forces had built models of the buildings to practice the attack and gathered intelligence in “multiple ways” to ensure the operation would be successful.
“We tried it in the past, but in the end we didn’t implement it because we understood that we didn’t have the right conditions and the right leverage,” Hagari said.
“In the past, we have conducted field operations more than three or four times. Special forces forces were waiting to invade an apartment, but we did not carry it out because we understood that we did not have this power. controls have many details, like in a puzzle.
“We have to make sure – and we never have all the links – that we have enough links to guarantee that.”
Defense Minister Yoav Gallant described the mission as one of the “most heroic and extraordinary operations” he had witnessed over the course of his 47 years serving in the Israeli defense establishment.
“Our troops showed such courage while operating under heavy fire in the most complex areas [urban environment in Gaza]Gallant said.
“I cannot remember completing this type of operation with this intensity and with this level of cooperation and success.”
Yonat Friling of Fox News contributed to this report.
Original article source: How Israel’s daring hostage rescue mission unfolded: ‘A surgical operation’
