2024 Nuseirat rescue operation | |
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Part of the Israel–Hamas war | |
![]() The landing of the rescued hostages at Sheba Hospital | |
Location | |
Objective | Rescue Israeli hostages held by Hamas |
Date | 8 June 2024 |
Executed by | Yamam, Shin Bet, Israel Defense Forces, Israel Air Force[1], Israeli Navy[2] |
Outcome |
|
Casualties |
The Nuseirat rescue operation (initially codenamed Operation Seeds of Summer and renamed Operation Arnon[6]) was a raid carried out by Yamam, the Shin Bet and Israel Defense Forces with support from the United States[7] in the Nuseirat refugee camp on 8 June 2024 to recover hostages taken from the Re'im music festival massacre during the 2023 Hamas-led attack on Israel.[8][9]
During the operation, four Israeli captives were recovered—Noa Argamani, Shlomi Ziv, Almog Meir Jan, and Andrey Kozlov—from two multi-story buildings in Nuseirat.[1] One Yamam officer was seriously injured during the operation and later died from his injuries.[10][11] Hamas reported that three other hostages, including a US citizen, were killed.
The death toll of the raid is disputed, with the Gazan Health Ministry stating that at least 274 Palestinians died in the camp, including women and children, and 698 injuries, as well as a few Israeli hostages,[12][13][14][15][16][17][18] while the IDF stated that fewer than 100 Palestinians were killed.[5] Following the operation, Hamas threatened the remaining hostages.[19]
On 7 October 2023, Hamas launched an attack on Israel.[20] As part of the attack, in which other Palestinian militant groups were also involved, thousands of rockets were launched towards the State of Israel and about 3,000 militants from the Gaza Strip infiltrated dozens of Israeli kibutzim and military installations and massacred civilians in nearby kibutzim and the Re'im music festival. As part of the attack, Hamas and other Palestinian militant groups kidnapped hundreds of Israelis, civilians and soldiers.[21] This attack led to the Israel–Hamas war.[21]
The Nuseirat refugee camp is a long standing UNRWA refugee camp located in the middle of the Gaza Strip, in Deir al-Balah.[22] The camp has been repeatedly bombed during the Israel-Hamas war, with over a hundred Palestinians killed in the attacks. The most recent attack on the camp occurred only days before the rescue operation, with IDF forces striking the UNRWA school in the camp, killing at least 33 people.[23][24][25][26]
This operation was the third known hostage rescue carried out by the IDF since the start of the war. IDF Corporal Ori Megidish was rescued in October 2023 from the northern part of the Gaza Strip, and two male hostages were rescued in February 2024 from southern Rafah.[27] Additionally a number of Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners have been exchanged throughout the war in November 2024.[28]
Main article: Israel–Hamas war hostage crisis |
All four hostages recovered had been kidnapped from the Re'im music festival, and were identified as Noa Argamani (26-years-old), Almog Meir Jan (22-years-old), Andrey Kozlov (27-years-old), and Shlomi Ziv (41-years-old). Both Argamani and Meir Jan were festival goers while Kozlov, a recent immigrant from Russia, and Ziv had been employed as security guards for the festival.[27][29]
Argamani was shown in one of the initial videos released by Hamas documenting the massacre. She was seen being taken away on a motorcycle while yelling, "Don't kill me!" Her arms are outstretched towards her boyfriend, Avinatan Or, who was also being kidnapped.[30][31] This footage became emblematic of the hostage crisis, leading to Argamani being described as "the face of the Nova music festival hostages."[32][33] Argamani's family had indications that she was alive, as she appeared in a Hamas video released in January 2024.[27]
The IDF said that they worked with Shin Bet and Israeli police to free the four Israeli hostages.[10] It was also later reported that the operation was aided by intelligence support from the United States[34] and the United Kingdom.[35] The operation was planned for several weeks, and was carried out after an intelligence opportunity arose.[8] Some of the special forces members entered the refugee camp in a vehicle with a mattress on top, posing as Palestinian refugees fleeing Rafah per Saudi reporters. They reportedly told locals that they were escaping the Israeli assault on Rafah, while other Palestinian locals alleged that other forces entered in humanitarian trucks.[36]
The operation began at about 11 am, with the Yamam and Sin Bet officers raiding two multi-story buildings about 200 meters apart, in the center of Nusseirat, where the hostages were reportedly held in two family homes.[6][10] During captivity the hostages were held in a civilian environment, guarded by armed militants, with the IDF stating this was an intentional method by their captors.[8][37] The female hostage, Argamani, was reportedly held separately from the three male hostages, who had been reportedly held together throughout their eight-month captivity.
The IDF stated that, at the time of the rescue, the three male hostages were being held in the home of freelance journalist Abdullah Al-Jamal, who had previously worked for Al Jazeera and was a writer for the Palestine Chronicle, a nonprofit publication based in the United States. Al-Jamal was also a spokesperson for the Palestinian Ministry of Labour. Ramy Abdul, head of the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor, reported that Al-Jamal, his wife, and his father were killed after Israeli forces stormed the home by ladder.[38][39] During the extraction of the three male hostages, a major gun battle reportedly erupted, causing the critical wounding of Chief Inspector Arnon Zamora, one of the Yaman members who was the commander of the rescue team for that building.[6] During the operation, the Southern Command and the Air Force said they exchanged fire with Hamas militants.[8] An IDF spokesman said its forces were fired upon inside buildings and during their withdrawal from Gaza.[40]
A witness in the camp reported a "crazy bombardment" occurred suddenly, while another stated that the strike happened when people were sleeping.[27] Witnesses reported that entire residential blocks were wiped out.[15] Per a resident and paramedic in the camp, the assault felt like a "horror movie" and that Israeli drones and warplanes fired randomly throughout the night at peoples homes and those who tried to flee the area. Videos were posted to social media, reportedly showing corpses with entrails spilling out lying on blood-stained streets after the attack, although Reuters was unable to immediately verify the footage.[37] Additional footage showed Palestinians in the market area diving for cover as missiles flew in and gunfire erupted.[41]
The three male hostages and Zmora were extracted from the refugee camp, but when the vehicle became stuck, additional forces had to rescue them as the vehicle came under fire. They were then brought to a makeshift helipad and airlifted into Israel.[6] The abductees were not injured, and were transferred to Sheba Medical Center.[40]
Hamas media office stated that the number of victims "has risen to 210 martyrs and more than 400 wounded."[18] Tanya Haj-Hassan, a paediatric intensive care doctor with Doctors Without Borders, stated that Al-Aqsa hospital, where 109 Palestinians including 23 children and 11 women and over 100 wounded victims were transported,[42] was a "complete bloodbath."[15][16][37]Another 100 people killed in the attacks were taken to al-Awda hospital.[42] The Gaza Health Ministry did not say how many of the casualties were combatants.[37]
According to the IDF, Hamas pays Palestinian families to hold the hostages in their houses, which may account for the high casualties.[1][43] In addition, a large firefight occurred as IDF special forces were attempting to disengage with the hostages, reportedly coming under fire from dozens of militants with RPGs and machine guns when their vehicle became stuck necessitating defensive airstrikes which may have killed civilians.[1][43]
The operation also resulted in the death of Chief Inspector Arnon Zamora, an Israeli Yamam officer, with the operation's codename subsequently changed to "Operation Arnon" in his honor.[6][1][44]
According to Hamas spokesman Abu Obaida, the operation resulted in the deaths of several other Israeli hostages,[45] which IDF spokesman Peter Lerner dismissed.[46] The day after the operation Hamas's armed wing uploaded a video to its Telegram channel appearing to show the unidentifiable corpses of three hostages that were reportedly killed during the rescue operation.[47]
Argamani was reunited with her father and transported to Sheba hospital to be reunited with her mother, where she was being treated for cancer.[48] During a phone call with Argamani, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that "we didn't give up on you for a moment."[27]
Israeli war cabinet member Benny Gantz postponed a scheduled news conference this evening, which coincided with his deadline to resign if Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu did not present a new plan for the war.[49] The following day, he resigned.[50]
Allegations of the United States military constructed floating pier in Gaza being used in the IDF operation, were seen after a video showing an IDF helicopter taking off from the beach with the pier in the background began to circulate online on 8 June. Two United States officials responded to the claims, stating that the pier was only used for humanitarian aid and the helicopter was used to return the hostages into Israel and had landed south of the pier but not within the cordoned off area.[34]