She was Noa Argamani, certainly one of about 250 Israeli hostages taken captive by Hamas.
Her 245th day in captivity had began like most others till, shortly after 11 a.m., she heard a knock on the door, adopted by yelling. Out of the blue, the room was stuffed with Israeli troopers. “You might be being rescued!” they shouted in Hebrew.
GET CAUGHT UP
Summarized tales to rapidly keep knowledgeable
“They merely got here, similar to that,” Argamani, 26, would inform her shut buddy Yan Gorjaltsan hours later.
The rescue operation on Saturday that freed 4 Israeli hostages and killed greater than 270 Palestinians, in response to Gaza well being officers, was probably the most dramatic and lethal episodes of Israel’s battle in opposition to Hamas. This account relies on greater than a dozen interviews with former and present Israeli navy officers, relations of hostages, and Palestinian eyewitnesses, in addition to evaluation of verified video footage.
Argamani and three different Israeli hostages can be extracted from central Gaza and reunited with household in a fancy daylight operation involving 1000’s of troops, technicians and analysts.
It was deliberate for weeks and executed easily, Israeli officers stated, till the tight commando raid became a firefight with militants. The Israeli navy responded with a large aerial assault on the crowded streets of Nuseirat.
The bombs stored falling and the streets echoed with screams, Abu Asi stated.
It was like “doomsday.”
The operation was months within the making.
Since Oct. 7, Israeli intelligence models, with assist from their U.S. counterparts, have studied digital clues, drone footage and intercepts to find the hostages. Not too long ago, they locked in on Nuseirat as the present location for 4 captives who had been taken from a desert dance rave simply outdoors the border fence with Gaza.
Amongst them was Argamani, whose wrenching pleas for mercy have been among the many defining photographs from the Hamas-led assaults on southern Israel. Officers from the Israel Protection Forces stated they knew she had been moved round Gaza greater than as soon as throughout her in time in captivity. Analysts confirmed she was now being held alone in a first-floor house; three different hostages — Almog Meir Jan, 22, Andrey Kozlov, 27, and Shlomi Ziv, 41 — have been on the third flooring of a constructing close by.
Planning started in tight secrecy. Mock-ups of the 2 buildings have been constructed for troops to rehearse in, officers stated. It mirrored the preparations undertaken by Israeli commandos earlier than their famed rescue of greater than 100 hostages in Entebbe, Uganda, in 1976.
For weeks, members of Yamam, a particular counterterrorism unit; Shin Guess, the nation’s inside safety company; and the IDF drilled again and again for a uncommon daylight mission.
“We understood that in these flats with these guards, daytime would be the final shock,” stated Adm. Daniel Hagari, an IDF spokesman.
It could imply higher threat moving into and out of the buildings. And it could imply extra Palestinian civilians on the streets.
Some troopers who took half within the drills didn’t know their actual goal, officers stated.
“Retaining it a secret was probably the most tough issues,” a commander within the Givati Brigade recognized as Lt. Col. Ziv stated in an account of the operation revealed by the IDF.
Commanders waited for the suitable second, deploying navy earthmovers to arrange the bottom inside Gaza.
“We labored on the roads round Nuseirat and within the close by metropolis of Deir al-Balah, in order that automobiles might cross simply in the meanwhile of reality,” stated Maj. Eliav, commander of the Kfir Brigade, whom the IDF recognized solely by his final title and place in accordance with its guidelines.
Lastly, by Thursday, the navy was prepared to maneuver. A gathering of the Safety Cupboard was canceled to stop leaks, in response to an Israeli official who spoke on the situation of anonymity to debate delicate particulars.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with a small group of senior safety leaders that night time to greenlight the plan.
‘We’ve the diamond’
On Saturday morning, IDF chief of workers Herzi Halevi; Ronen Bar, the pinnacle of Shin Guess; and Hagari crowded right into a command room lined with video displays.
At 11 a.m., Halevi stated, “Go.”
Hundreds of personnel have been concerned within the operation, IDF officers stated. It took about 25 minutes for particular forces to drive from Israel to Nuseirat. How they obtained there may be nonetheless unclear.
Palestinian witnesses described some troops arriving in two undercover automobiles, certainly one of which resembled the vehicles utilized by Israel to convey industrial items into Gaza. The opposite was a white Mercedes truck, piled excessive with furnishings and different belongings, a typical sight in a camp that’s house to 1000’s of displaced households.
“The IDF made no use of any civilian vehicles,” the navy stated in a press release.
Two movies verified by The Washington Publish present a field truck marked with a model of dishwashing cleaning soap touring within the firm of Israeli armored automobiles on a street a few mile west of the raid. The automobiles head west, away from Nuseirat, and it’s unclear whether or not the movies have been filmed earlier than or after the raid.
The white Mercedes is seen in a 3rd verified video filmed from the balcony of a residential constructing within the heart of the camp. Two ladders could be seen resting in opposition to the facet of a home, resulting in an higher flooring subsequent to the truck. “Right here they’ve arrived,” says the voice of the lady who furtively filmed the six-second scene.
Hussam al-Arouqi, 33, was getting back from the bakery along with his brother Issam, he recounted, when two males in plainclothes and about 10 closely armed troopers poured out of the again of the Mercedes. The troopers opened hearth, hitting his brother 3 times, he stated.
“He fell to the bottom and began bleeding” and tried to crawl away, Hussam stated, including that Apache helicopters have been flying low overhead.
It was greater than an hour, he stated, earlier than it was protected sufficient to achieve Issam and take him to the hospital in a donkey-drawn cart. Issam stays in vital situation.
Israeli troops succeeded in reaching Argamani’s house with out tipping off her guards, in response to Hagari, who was watching video feeds from drones circling above and troopers’ helmet cameras. Virtually concurrently, different models entered the constructing holding the three male hostages, about 220 yards away.
“In Noa Argamani’s constructing, we stunned them utterly,” Hagari stated.
The shocked younger girl was bustled down the steps right into a car and pushed to a helicopter ready close by.
Troopers relayed the excellent news with a coded phrase: “We’ve the diamond in our hand.”
The chopper lifted off, heading for a hospital close to Tel Aviv. At 12:20 p.m., Argamani’s household was instructed she was free.
By then, the operation in Nuseirat had gone astray. The guards with the three male hostages had not been taken without warning. A Yamam commander was shot as they entered the constructing. A firefight erupted, exposing the covert mission.
“Instantly, it turned a battle zone,” stated Amir Avivi, a reservist brigadier basic and former deputy commander of the IDF’s Gaza division who was briefed on the operation.
The troopers have been capable of get the three hostages and the injured man right into a car, however it broke down below Hamas hearth from rifles and rocket-propelled grenades, officers stated. At one level, Avivi stated, they have been pressured to desert the car and search refuge in a constructing close by.
The commanders known as for air assist.
“The air drive began capturing to present them a hall, a wall of fireplace,” stated retired Maj. Gen. David Tsur, a former Yamam commander.
Explosions rocked the slim streets, which have solely grown extra crowded in latest weeks with households displaced by Israel’s offensive in southern Gaza.
There was carnage in all places, Abu Asi stated, together with lifeless girls and kids. The roads have been stuffed with “tanks, artillery, physique elements and injured … nothing however a corridor of blood.”
He commandeered the tuk-tuk he used for transferring his merchandise and ferried some two dozen lifeless and injured folks to al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah, the place he stated our bodies lined the ground.
“They have been capturing and concentrating on every little thing,” paramedic Abdel Hamid Ghorab stated from close by al-Awda Hospital, which struggled to deal with the frenzy of wounded. “None of us might even inform what occurred outdoors.”
The Gaza Well being Ministry stated at the least 274 folks have been killed; it was unclear what number of have been combatants.
On social media, folks frantically shared information of airstrikes and troop actions, posting names and photographs of family members they have been separated from. Later got here tributes to the lifeless.
“Plane struck dozens of navy targets for the success of the operation,” the IDF stated in a press release. “Hamas, in a really merciless and cynical manner, is holding hostages inside civilian buildings.”
The Israeli forces, with the three hostages, battled away from the market and finally reached the seaside. Not removed from the non permanent pier constructed by the U.S. Navy to ship humanitarian assist, a second helicopter was ready.
The rescued captives scrambled inside and the wounded officer was loaded. He would later die of his accidents.
The chopper hurried the three hostages to freedom because the battle raged behind them.
Rubin reported from Tel Aviv, Morris from Berlin, Farouk Mahfouz from Cairo and Harb from London. Hazem Balousha in Cairo, Miriam Berger in Jerusalem and Evan Hill in New York contributed to this report.
