8/6/2024–|Last updated: 6/8/202404:55 PM (Mecca time)
Axios reported – citing a US administration official – that what it described as the “American kidnappers cell in Israel” helped return the four detainees whose release the Israeli army announced today from Gaza in an operation in the Nuseirat camp in the central Gaza Strip.
In his first comment after announcing the recovery of the four prisoners, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that “Israel does not surrender to terrorism” and that it is working to return the detainees.
He added, “We are committed to doing this in the future as well. We will not rest until we complete the mission” and return all detainees, whether living or dead, he said.
For his part, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Galant said that he followed from the command room the process of releasing the four detainees under heavy fire, saying that the mission was “carried out.”
Gallant added that the forces that recovered the detainees worked under intense fire bombardment and in a complex urban environment, according to him.
Exclusive photos from Tel Aviv Tribune show the Israeli Special Forces using an aid truck and a civilian car to carry out the kidnapping operation#News #Gaza_War pic.twitter.com/w8j6CUC1qA
– Tel Aviv Tribune Palestine (@AJA_Palestine) June 8, 2024
Families of prisoners
On the other hand, the families of the Israeli prisoners said that the Israeli government must remember that “it is its duty to return all 120 detainees” in the Gaza Strip.
The Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth reported that an officer in the Yamam unit was killed during the operation to recover the four detainees, which the occupation army announced earlier that it was carried out in coordination between the Internal Security Service (Shin Bet) and the Special Police Unit from two separate areas in the heart of Nuseirat.
The Israeli Broadcasting Corporation broadcast images that it said were from the shores of Gaza, showing the transfer of detainees to Israeli army helicopters, noting that “gunmen” chased the car that evacuated the prisoners, opened fire on it and damaged it.
She added – quoting a source – that the army did not succeed in inserting a helicopter near the place where the prisoners were evacuated, and it used additional reinforcements.
A statement by the occupation army stated that the four prisoners were among those detained from the Nova ceremony on the seventh of last October, indicating that their health condition is good, and that they were transferred for medical examinations to Tel Hashomer Hospital.
He said that the detainees were Noa Argamani, Almoa Meir, Andrei Kozlov, and Shlomi Ziv.
Israeli army military spokesman Daniel Hagari also said that various ground, air and naval military units participated in the operation.
He added that the operation was led by the Chief of Staff and the head of the Shin Bet, side by side, after the plan had been prepared for weeks on the basis of intelligence information in coordination with the Shin Bet Operations Room and the Abductees Operations Command.
‘Very complex’ process
He pointed out that the operation was “very complex” and involved hundreds of combat personnel from the Shin Bet, the 98th Battalion, and the Paratroopers Corps, as well as elements from the Air Force and the Navy who worked to provide fire coverage.
Private photos obtained by Tel Aviv Tribune showed the Israeli special forces using an aid truck and a civilian car to carry out the operation.
The pictures show civilian cars protected by Israeli tanks entering the western areas of the Nuseirat camp, at a time when Israeli warplanes launched a series of unprecedented raids targeting the camp and various areas in the middle of the Gaza Strip, leaving more than 150 Palestinians dead and dozens injured so far.
It is noteworthy that the Israeli occupation army continues for the eighth month in a row its devastating war on the Gaza Strip, causing tens of thousands of martyrs and wounded, most of them children and women, and an unprecedented humanitarian and health crisis.