The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) said on Saturday it had rescued four Israeli hostages during a “complex daytime special operation” in Nuseirat, a refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip.
The hostages were named as Noa Argamani, 25, Almog Meir Jan, 21, Andrey Kozlov, 27 and Shlomi Ziv, 40.
The three men and a woman were abducted by the Palestinian terror organization Hamas from the Nova music festival in southern Israel on October 7, the IDF said.
“We are overjoyed that you are back home,” Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said, according to his office. He spoke of a ‘heroic operation’.
The IDF, together with the Israeli Security Service and the anti-terrorism unit of the Yamam police, carried out the operation involving hundreds of troops on Saturday morning, the IDF said.
They were liberated from two different locations in central Nuseirat.
The military had previously announced that it would attack terrorist infrastructure in the area.
The four are in “good medical condition” and were taken to “Sheba” Tel-Hashomer Medical Center for further medical evaluation.
The IDF said it will continue to make every effort to bring the hostages home.
For Israel, this is the first good news in weeks, as the country has come under heavy international pressure over its operations in the Gaza Strip.
The Times of Israel reported that War Cabinet Minister Benny Gantz, who was expected to resign in a speech on Saturday evening, canceled his speech after news of the hostages’ rescue emerged.
The war began on October 7 when Hamas launched a surprise attack in southern Israel, killing 1,200 people and taking about 250 hostage.
There was a temporary ceasefire in November, during which Hamas released more than a hundred hostages in exchange for Israel’s release of Palestinians held in Israeli prisons.
There are believed to be around 120 hostages from Israel still in Gaza, but it is unclear how many of them are still alive.
