200 Gazans die as Israel rescues four hostages


Rescued hostages Noa Argamani, 26, Almog Meir Jan, 22, Andrey Kozlov, 27, and Shlomi Ziv, 41.
Israel is celebrating the “extraordinary” rescue of four hostages, while more than 200 Palestinians were killed in air strikes in the same area, according to Hamas officials, in one of the bloodiest Israeli assaults of the war.
It was not immediately clear if the risky hostage rescue and the Israeli air assault were part of the same operation.
Both took place in central Gaza’s al-Nuseirat where the Israeli military was launching a rare daylight rescue operation — its most successful to date in retrieving four hostages alive.
Israel’s Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said it was “one of the most heroic and extraordinary operations I have witnessed over the course of 47 years serving in Israel’s defence establishment”.
Horror photos from newswires show the bodies of Palestinian children and the elderly being extracted from the carnage, and corpses and injured people lining the streets and hospital corridors.

A view of the destruction after Israeli attacks in al-Nuseirat. Photo: Getty
The hostages were kidnapped from the Nova music festival eight months ago, on October 7, when Hamas launched a deadly raid that sparked the war.
The hostages were named as Noa Argamani, 26, Almog Meir Jan, 22, Andrey Kozlov, 27, and Shlomi Ziv, 41.
They were taken to hospital for medical checks and were in good health, the military said.
An Israeli military spokesperson said the rescue operation unfolded 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 air strikes, added the spokesperson, Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari.
An Israeli special forces commander was killed during the operation, a police statement said.
Gunmen took around 250 hostages back to Gaza on October 7. There are 116 now left in the coastal enclave, according to Israeli tallies, including at least 40 whom Israeli authorities have declared dead in absentia.
‘Horror movie’
As Israel’s rescue mission was underway, Palestinian health ministry officials and local medics said scores of people were killed, including women and children.
The ministry did not say how many of the fatalities were combatants.
The Hamas-run government media office in Gaza put the death toll at 210 Palestinians with many more wounded, after medics and health officials gave earlier tolls of up to 100 dead.
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 on 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.
Hostage reunions
Israeli News 12 broadcast footage of Noa Argamani reunited with her father, smiling and embracing him.
Video of Argamani’s kidnapping, showing her shouting “Don’t kill me!” as she was driven into Gaza on a motorbike, circulated soon after she was taken on October 7.
A smiling Argamani was shown speaking by phone to Israeli President Isaac Herzog from hospital surrounded by family and friends, in footage released by the president’s office.
“Thank you for everything, thank you for this moment,” she said.
“I am so excited to hear your voice, it brings tears to my eyes … Welcome home,” Herzog said.
Poland praised the rescue of the hostages and said that one is a dual Israeli-Polish citizen.
-with AAP