Four hostages were rescued simultaneously from two separate nearby locations in Nuseirat in central Gaza, in a high-risk joint operation by the IDF, Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency), Yamam and police in broad daylight, the IDF announced in a series of statements on Saturday.
Regarding the third such successful operation to rescue hostages since the war started on October 7, the IDF said that the rescued hostages were Noa Argamani (25), Almog Meir (21), Andrey Kozlov (27) and Shlomi Ziv (40), all of whom were kidnapped by Hamas to the Gaza Strip from the Supernova festival.
An unknown number of Palestinian terrorists and civilians were killed during the operation. The IDF implied that dozens of terrorists were killed, but left open the possibility that potentially some dozens of Palestinian civilians might also have been killed.
According to the IDF, around 90 Palestinians were likely killed, but the complexity of the hostages being held in civilian areas and a certain amount of chaos at points of the operation left the breakdown of terrorists to civilians unclear, with Hamas claiming the number was closer to 210, but not providing any verifiable evidence.
The heroic operation put a new wind into the sails of the IDF and the Israeli public, but also will likely lead Hamas to improve its guard on other hostages, and it was unclear whether this would impact the broader strategic situation in which Hamas has held huge leverage over Israel by virtue of the around 120 hostages it still holds.