Click to see full-size image. (The Israeli Defense Forces)
Israeli forces murdered more than 200 Palestinian civilians on June 8 while conducting a special operation to free four hostages from the Hamas Movement in the central part of the Gaza Strip.
Four Israeli hostages, Noa Argamani, 26, Almog Meir Jan, 21, Andrey Kozlov, 27 and Shlomi Ziv, 40, were freed during the operation, which was codenamed “Seeds of Summer,” according to the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF). The four were captured by Hamas fighters during the October 7 surprise attack on Israel.
Officers of the Israeli police’s elite Yamam unit, along with Shin Bet agents, simultaneously raided two Hamas buildings in the heart of the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza during the operation, a joint statement by the two said. Argamani was extracted from one building, while Meir Jan, Kozlov, and Ziv were at the second building.
The IDF said that hundreds of its troops participated in the special operation along with the Yamam and Shin Bet personnel.
Palestinian media reported that Israeli special forces entered Nuseirat in an aid truck and a civilian vehicle during the operation.
During the operation, heavy Israeli airstrikes targeted Nuseirat. The Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza reported at least 210 Palestinians civilians, including women and children, were killed. More than 400 others were reportedly wounded.
“During the operation, we struck … threats to our forces in the area. These threats were struck from the land, air, and sea … for us to extract our forces [and the hostages],” IDF spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said in a press conference.
A Yamam officer was badly wounded while taking part in the operation and his death was announced soon after by the Israeli police. His death brought the toll from Israel’s ground operations in Gaza and along its border to 296.
Commenting on the operation, senior Hamas official, Sami Abu Zuhri, told Reuters that “regaining four captives after nine months of fighting is a sign of failure not an achievement.”
Following the operation, 116 of the 251 hostages taken by Hamas on October 7 remain in Gaza, not all of them alive. A weeklong truce in late November saw 105 civilians released from the group’s captivity and four hostages were released before that.
In all, seven hostages have been freed by the IDF alive, and the bodies of 19 hostages have also been recovered, including three mistakenly killed by Israeli troops.
The IDF has confirmed the deaths of 41 of those still held by Hamas, citing new intelligence and findings obtained by troops operating in Gaza. One more woman has been listed as missing since the attack of October 7, and her fate is still unknown.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu used the operation to double down on his decision to go on with the war on Gaza, which has so far destroyed much of the Strip and claimed the lives of more than 36,000 Palestinians.
“We are committed to doing so in the future as well. We will not let up until we complete the mission and return all our hostages home – both the living and the dead,” Netanyahu said in a statement.
The success of the operation in Nuseirat will likely encourage the Israeli government to intensify its war on Gaza. Israel will not likely engage as actively as before in indirect talks with Hamas. This could lead to more escalation against Israel by Hamas’ regional allies in the Iran-led Axis of Resistance.
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