At least 274 Palestinians — including dozens of children — were killed and hundreds more wounded in the Israeli operation in which four hostages held by Hamas were rescued, the Gaza Health Ministry reported Sunday. The Israeli military said its forces were met with gunfire during the complicated daylight operation in central Gaza.
The death of so many Palestinians during an operation that the Israelis described as a resounding success revealed the enormous cost of this type of operation coupled with the immense number of casualties after eight months of conflict following the initial Hamas attack on October 7.
The Israeli bombings were “hell,” witness Mohamed al-Habash told The Associated Press.
“We saw many fighter jets flying through the area. We saw people fleeing the streets. “Women and children screamed and cried,” she narrated.
The operation in Nuseirat, an urban refugee camp whose creation dates back to the 1948 war, was the largest rescue since October 7, when Hamas and other militants stormed across the border and killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians. , and took around 250 hostages.
Israel’s large-scale offensive has claimed the lives of more than 36,700 Palestinians, according to the Health Ministry, whose count does not distinguish between combatants and civilians. The agency indicated that 64 children and 57 women died during the most recent operation, in addition that 153 minors and 161 women are among the almost 700 injured.
Saturday’s events also affected fragile attempts at aid distribution. The director of the World Food Program indicated that deliveries were suspended in the vicinity of a dock built by the United States off the coast of Gaza because “two of our warehouses, the warehouse complex, were bombed yesterday.” When asked what happened and if the agency shares its location with the Israeli military, Cindy McCain stated that she does and “I don’t know. That is a good question”. It was not clear if she was referring to the rescue operation.
SCENES OF HORROR IN GAZA HOSPITAL
In Gaza, medical staff described the chaos after the operation. Overwhelmed hospitals were already struggling to care for the wounded after several days of intense Israeli attacks.
“We had a range of war wounds, trauma, from amputations to disembowelments and trauma, to brain trauma, fractures and, of course, severe burns,” said Karin Huster, of Doctors Without Borders and who works at the Mártires Hospital in Al- Aqsa. “Children completely gray or white from trauma, with burns, screaming for their parents. “Many of them don’t scream because they are in shock.”
According to the Israeli military, they attacked “threats to our forces in the area,” and a special forces agent was killed during the operation. They added that the rescuers were met with gunfire, including rocket-launched grenades, so the army responded forcefully, even from an aircraft.
Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz attacked those who criticized the operation and published on the social network
Within Israel, local media has focused primarily on the Israeli death toll, hostages and military efforts, giving relatively little coverage to the situation of Palestinians inside Gaza.
MY BROTHER DIED OF SADNESS
Israelis continued to celebrate the return of 26-year-old Noa Argamani; Almog Meir Jan, 22; Andrey Kozlov, 27; and Shlomi Ziv, 41; while they reunited with their loved ones.
Argamani’s mother, Liora, who suffers from end-stage brain cancer, had released a video asking to see her. Argamani’s father told Army Radio that it was “very difficult” since Liora “couldn’t express her feelings and she couldn’t say what she was really hoping to say.”
Meir Jan’s aunt, Dina, revealed that her father had died on Friday, just hours before the operation. “My brother died of sadness,” she told Israeli public broadcaster Kan.
Doctor Itai Pessach, from Sheba Hospital, stressed that none of the hostages suffered serious physical injuries. But they have lost family and friends, so staff “have been providing them with assistance to rebuild the infrastructure of their lives.”
Some 120 hostages remain in Gaza, of whom 43 have already been declared dead, after around half of the hostages were freed as part of a week-long truce last November. Israeli forces have recovered the bodies of at least 16 of the captives, according to the government. Among the survivors are about 15 women, two children under 5 years old and two men over 80.
Large numbers of hostages are believed to be held in densely populated areas or within Hamas’ labyrinth of tunnels, making rescue operations complex and risky. Two hostages were freed and 74 Palestinians were killed during an operation last February.
Israel’s military has acknowledged that it cannot carry out operations to rescue them all.
WHATS NEXT
Divisions have been growing in Israel over the best way to bring the hostages home. Many are calling on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to accept the ceasefire agreement that US President Joe Biden announced last month, but his far-right allies are threatening to dismantle his government if he does so. Hours after the rescue, thousands of Israelis gathered again to protest the government and demand a deal.
Benny Gantz, a popular centrist politician and one of three members of Israel’s war cabinet, resigned from the government on Sunday after demanding that it implement a new plan for the war. The resignation makes Netanyahu even more dependent on his far-right allies.
Additionally, the commander of the Israeli army’s Gaza division resigned over security failures that led to the October 7 attack.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken will return to the Middle East this week, seeking a breakthrough in truce negotiations. US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan told CNN that the mediating countries, Egypt and Qatar, have not received official notification from Hamas regarding the proposal. In a separate interview with CBS, Sullivan did not reveal whether Biden will meet with Netanyahu next month, when the Israeli premier addresses Congress.
International pressure is building on Israel to limit the number of civilian casualties during its war in Gaza. Palestinians also face widespread famine due to fighting, and restrictions imposed by Israel have greatly hampered the flow of aid.
“They killed everything inside us,” said a Nuseirat resident who witnessed Saturday’s offensive. The woman, who identified herself only as Mounira in a video released by the United Nations, called for a ceasefire.