Four Israelis woke up in Gaza on Saturday to find they had been held hostage by Hamas for 245 days in two low-rise concrete apartment buildings that looked much like their neighbors in a civilian neighborhood bustling with Palestinian families.
Within hours, the three captured men and one woman would be reunited with their families in a long-planned and risky rescue operation that drew on the full might of the Israeli military to devastating effect.
“I'm very emotional,” hostage Noa Al-Ghamani, 26, said in a phone call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu after his release. “It's been a long time since I've heard Hebrew.”
The Israeli military said the rescue operation in Nuseirat involved hundreds of intelligence agents and two special forces, who simultaneously stormed the house where the hostages were being held.
A gunfight broke out between soldiers and Hamas guards in one of the apartments where the male hostages were being held, according to video footage released by the army and the Israeli military. A truck carrying the three hostages and a wounded Israeli officer then broke down in a hail of gunfire and was surrounded by militants, Israeli officials said.
The military said the air force had begun bombing dozens of nearby targets to give rescue forces enough time and coverage to free the prisoners. Many Palestinians said they only became aware of the fighting when they heard bombs exploding.
Dozens of local residents, including children, were killed during the rescue operation. Health officials in Hamas-controlled areas put the figure at more than 270. The Israeli army said the number was fewer than 100. Neither the Israeli army nor Palestinian health officials have provided a breakdown of civilians and combatants killed in the raids.
background
In the weeks before the attack, Israeli intelligence officials identified two buildings, about 600 feet apart, where they believed the hostages were being held.
Israeli intelligence determined in May that Al-Ghamani was being held captive in her family's apartment near the Nuseirat market, where she was captured by militants at a music festival on October 7 and recorded in a widely shared video, Israeli military spokesman Maj. Gen. Daniel Hagari told reporters. Three other male hostages were being held nearby in another family's apartment – Almog Meir Jan, 22, Andrei Kozlov, 27, and Shlomi Ziv, 41.
The Israeli army said the house where the men were being held was the home of Abdallah al-Jamal, whose death was confirmed Sunday by Gaza's Government Media Office, which said he worked for the Hamas-backed news agency Palestine Now.
“We decided to conduct the operation in both apartments because if we had chosen only one, the risk that terrorists would have killed the hostages in the other apartment would have been too high,” Admiral Hagari said.
In preparation for the mission, the military “built mock-ups of these houses to practice with,” Admiral Hagari said, adding that coordination between the two teams had to be “as precise as brain surgery” to ensure that mistakes by one group did not cause problems for the other.
Raid
As the sun neared midday on Saturday morning, Nuseira's residents began emerging from their hot apartment buildings to go to work, shop at the market or visit family.
“It was very normal, the streets were bustling with activity, people buying and selling,” said Bayan Khaled Abu Amr, 32, who had left his home that morning to visit his uncle.
Fifty miles away in Tel Aviv, Israeli officers gathered in a command room at the Shin Bet, Israel's security service. “The atmosphere was very tense,” Admiral Hagari said.
So at around 11:00 a.m., Israeli Chief of Staff, General Helgi Halevi, gave the order to “come forward,” authorizing special forces from Israel's counter-terrorism unit, Yamam, to begin the assault.
Israeli officials said soldiers from the unit started up two vehicles, similar to local trucks, and drove to the buildings where the hostages were being held.
Khalil Abdul Kader al-Tahlawi, a 60-year-old shop owner, said he was sitting outside his shop when he saw people dressed in uniforms of the Qassam Brigades, Hamas's militant wing, approaching the building where the three were later found being held captive.
He said the group seemed “suspicious and strange” to him because they were “climbing ladders up the building and coming back down, guns pointed everywhere” and he believed they were Israeli special forces.
Other witnesses also described men who appeared to be Israeli special forces but who were wearing civilian clothes.
Israeli officials declined to say whether Israeli troops were in disguise during the raid.
Shortly after General Halevi approved the operation, forces stormed both buildings simultaneously, and Al-Ghamani was kept under guard in a locked room, her captors quickly killed before they even knew what was happening, Israeli officials said.
“At the Noor Al-Ghamani building, our forces took them completely by surprise,” Admiral Haghari said.
escape
Admiral Haghari said that as the team tasked with extracting Al-Ghamani was transporting her to a helicopter pick-up point on Gaza's Mediterranean coast, a team trying to rescue three men from another building began coming under fire.
Admiral Hagari said that at that moment, a Yamam officer, Arnon Zmora, 36, was shot and wounded. Body camera footage released by the Israeli Border Guard shows Israeli forces finding the male hostage inside a residential apartment as a firefight with militants continues off-screen.
Edited to blur soldiers' faces and erase gory scenes, the footage shows the hostages leaving the building and clambering through the densely wooded grounds as gunfire rages all around them.
“Hamas members opened fire on them,” said store owner Al-Tahlawi.
More fighters had joined the fighting, “running around the city with rocket-propelled grenades,” Admiral Hagari said. “There was a lot of fire all around,” he said.
As Al-Ghamani was approaching the shore in one vehicle, another truck being used for the rescue broke down, according to Israeli officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the secret operation. To cover the broken-down truck, the air force bombed nearby areas, effectively creating a fire shield, the officials said.
“Suddenly we heard loud bomb and missile sounds around the mosque,” said Abu Amr, who was visiting his uncle. “I don't remember the exact time, but I think it was around 11:20 a.m.”
“We heard another loud missile sound and saw grey smoke rising,” Abu Amr added. “People started screaming.” In the chaos of the bombing, “children were screaming and women were running and falling,” she said.
According to Israeli authorities, Israeli ground troops stationed nearby went to the broken-down truck and transferred the hostages and the wounded Lt. Zmora to another vehicle.
From there they rushed to the shore, where the second of two helicopters was waiting – the first had already taken off with Al-Ghamani on board.
Footage released by the military showed soldiers leading the hostages along the coast as helicopters kicked up clouds of dust.
after that
“We called the hostages diamonds, that's why we say we have the diamonds in our hands,” Admiral Hagari said.
Chief Inspector Zmora was taken to an Israeli hospital where he later died from his injuries.
The corridors and halls of Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balaf, central Gaza's last major medical center, remained “crowded” with new patients on Sunday after more than 100 bodies were brought in on Saturday, hospital official Khalil Dakran said. Most of the bodies have since been buried or collected by relatives, he added.
In nearby Nuseirat, medical facilities that were already full before the Israeli rescue effort began were even more overcrowded, said Abdelkarim Al-Harazzin, 28, a doctor working there.
The Gaza Health Ministry said as many as 700 people were injured.
Aaron Boxerman and Adam Rasgon He contributed reporting from Jerusalem.