Israel rescues four hostages, 210 Palestinians martyred in airstrikes on Gaza camp
JERUSALEM/GAZA (Reuters/AFP) - Israeli forces rescued four hostages held by Hamas since October in a raid in the central Gaza Strip on Saturday, while at least 210 Palestinians were martyred in airstrikes in the same area.
It was not immediately clear if the hostage rescue and the Israeli air assault were part of the same operation but both took place in Al-Nuseirat, a densely built-up and often embattled area in the eight-month-old war between Israel and Gaza's ruling Hamas. Hamas's government media office said at least 210 people were martyred in Israeli attacks on a central Gaza refugee camp from which four hostages were rescued. "The number of victims from the Israeli occupation's massacre in the Nuseirat camp has risen to 210 martyrs and more than 400 wounded," the press office said in a statement.
It came after the Israeli army announced the rescue of four Israeli hostages in Nuseirat earlier Saturday in an operation that they said took place "under fire". The army named the rescued hostages as Noa Argamani, 26, Almog Meir Jan, 22, Andrey Kozlov, 27, and Shlomi Ziv, 41. They were all kidnapped from the Nova music festival during Palestinian militant group Hamas' deadly raid on Israeli towns and villages near Gaza.
Earlier on Saturday the military said in a separate statement that forces were "targeting terrorist infrastructure in the area of Nuseirat". Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh vowed to keep fighting after the Israeli attack on the camp. "Our people will not surrender, and the resistance will continue to defend our rights in the face of this criminal enemy," Haniyeh said in a statement. The Hamas government had in an earlier statement reported a toll of 94 martyrs in and around Nuseirat, adding that they had been taken to the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' hospital in Deir al-Balah.
It said the hospital was "unable to accommodate the number of martyrs and wounded", appealing for the international community and aid organisations for help. An Israeli military spokesperson said the hostage rescue operation took place under fire in the heart of a residential neighbourhood, where he said Hamas had been hiding captives among Gaza civilians under guard by armed militants. Israeli forces returned fire, including with airstrikes, the spokesperson, Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, added. One Israeli special forces soldier was killed during the operation, a police statement said.
BLOODY SCENES
Social media footage that Reuters could not immediately verify showed bodies spilling entrails onto bloodstained streets. "It was like a horror movie but this was a real massacre. Israeli drones and warplanes fired all night randomly at people's houses and at people who tried to flee the area," said Ziad, 45, a paramedic and resident of Nuseirat, who gave only his first name.
The bombardment focused around a local marketplace and the Al-Awda mosque, he told Reuters via a messaging app. "To free four people Israel killed dozens of innocent civilians," he said. Emergency response teams were trying to ferry the dead and wounded to hospital in the nearby city of Deir al-Balah but many bodies were still lying in the streets, including around a market district, Ziad and other residents said.
Nuseirat, a historic Palestinian refugee camp, has been subjected to heavy Israeli bombing during the war and there has also been fierce ground fighting in its eastern areas.
