The military announced in a statement that all four were abducted by Hamas militants from the Nova music event on October 7.
Following a “complex daytime operation” on Saturday, the Israeli military reported that its forces had successfully freed four Israeli hostages from Gaza. Noa Argamani, 25, Almog Meir Jan, 21, Andrey Kozlov, 27, and Shlomi Ziv, 40, were identified by the army as the freed hostages.
The military announced in a statement that all four were abducted by Hamas militants from the Nova music event on October 7.
The four had been brought to the hospital, and it was stated that they were in “good medical condition.”
Israeli authorities shared footage of Argamani’s tearful reunion with her father on social media following her rescue.
When the footage appeared on Israeli television, it showed Argamani grinning and conversing with President Isaac Herzog over the phone.
Israel army spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said the operation took place in two separate buildings “in the heart of a civilian neighbourhood”.
“While under fire inside the buildings, under fire on the way out from Gaza, our forces rescued our hostages,” Hagari said in a televised statement.
An Israeli soldier was “critically wounded” in the operation, which took place around 11 a.m. (0800 GMT), he added.
“The message this morning to Hamas is clear: we are determined to bring back home all the hostages.”
The rare rescue comes eight months into war with Palestinian Hamas militants in Gaza.
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Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said on X: “Noa, Almog, Andrey and Shlomi — we are overjoyed to have you home.”
During their October 7 attack on the music festival and other areas of southern Israel, militants took 251 hostages, 116 of whom now remain in the Palestinian territory, including 41 the army says are dead.
The October 7 attack resulted in the deaths of 1,194 people in Israel, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.
Israel’s retaliatory bombardments and ground offensive on Gaza have killed 36,801 people, also mostly civilians, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry.
Nuseirat strike
Earlier on Saturday the military said in a separate statement that forces were “targeting terrorist infrastructure in the area of Nuseirat”.
A Gaza hospital said Israeli strikes in central areas of the territory, including in Nuseirat camp, killed at least 15 people on Saturday.
“Intense Israeli air strikes in central governorate left at least 15 martyrs and tens wounded who have been brought to Al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital,” the spokesman for the facility, doctor Khalil al-Dakran, told AFP.
Dakran said the casualties had come from in and around Nuseirat camp as well as Deir al-Balah, where the hospital is located.
Hamas reacts
Hamas said in a separate statement: “There are dozens of bodies of martyrs and wounded lying on the ground, in the streets, and in safe rooms.”
The group added that Israeli forces were engaged in a “brutal and savage aggression on Nuseirat camp”.
AFPTV video showed thick plumes of smoke billowing into the sky from several buildings in Nuseirat.
Other footage posted online showed Kozlov and Meir Jan arriving in Israel and beachgoers erupting into cheers in Tel Aviv after a lifeguard announced the four had been rescued.
In recent weeks the military has carried out intense air and ground assaults in and around Nuseirat.
On Thursday, the military struck a school turned shelter run by the UN agency for supporting Palestinian refugees, also known as UNRWA, which the Al-Aqsa hospital said had killed 37 people.
The Israeli military acknowledged it conducted the strike in the Nuseirat refugee camp that targeted the UN school, saying it killed 17 “terrorists” there.
In February, another rescue mission freed two hostages.