Israeli forces rescue 4 hostages from Gaza after 246 days

The hostages, 25-year-old Noa Argamani, Shlomi Ziv, 40, Almog Meir Jan, 21, and Andrey Kozlov, 27, were abducted while attending the Nova festival, an outdoor music event in a rural area near the Gaza-Israel fence.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) spokesman Daniel Hagari, stated that the four were located in proper medical condition in two buildings at the heart of Gaza’s Nuseirat refugee camp.

The IDF said the operation, which has been planned for weeks, was jointly carried out with the police’s elite National Counter Terror Unit and the Israel Security Agency.

One fighter was seriously injured during the operation.

In videos released by the government, Israeli President Isaac Herzog and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke with Argamani on the phone.

Following the rescue of the four, 120 Israeli hostages remain in the Gaza Strip, with 43 of them considered by Israel as dead.

“We will do everything to get them back as well,” Hagari said.

Meanwhile, local medical sources said that 94 Palestinians were killed and dozens of others injured on Saturday in Israeli airstrikes on the Nuseirat camp and some other areas in the central Gaza Strip.

Palestinian security sources said deadly clashes broke out on the ground between Palestinian militants and Israeli troops raiding the Nuseirat camp under the cover of artillery and aerial bombardment.