The Israeli occupation army said – Saturday afternoon – that it was able to recover 4 prisoners in a complex operation in the Nuseirat camp in the central Gaza Strip that had been planned for weeks, and resulted in hundreds of Palestinian martyrs and wounded and the killing of an Israeli Special Forces officer.
The following is an explanation of the process, its details and effects:
How was the operation done?
Private photos obtained by Tel Aviv Tribune showed 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 hundreds of martyrs and wounded.
Anatolia Agency also quoted sources that the Israeli special force used a closed transport truck and a civilian vehicle in the infiltration operation into the Nuseirat camp.
While Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his Defense Minister Yoav Gallant were following the operation from the operations room in Tel Aviv, the occupation forces began the attack in the direction of the two houses in which the four prisoners were held, a girl who was in a house alone and 3 who were in another house not far away in the Nuseirat area.
Israeli police forces and special forces from the Internal Security Agency (Shin Bet) began raiding the two houses, while the Israeli army had sent large ground forces from the east and military helicopters carried out extensive bombardment.
It is estimated that fierce battles took place in the vicinity of Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital and the vicinity of Nuseirat Market, which lasted about 3 hours, after which the four detainees were transferred in two helicopters from the sea area to Tel Aviv Hospital.
The official Israeli Broadcasting Authority published a video clip showing the transfer of detainees from the Nuseirat camp to a helicopter that was waiting for them on the Gaza beach, which later took them to Israel.
Who participated in it?
IDF military spokesman Daniel Hagari said that various ground, air and naval military units participated in the operation.
Hagari 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 “Kidnappers” Operations Command.
He pointed out that the operation was “very complex” and involved hundreds of fighters from the Shin Bet, the 98th Battalion, and the Paratroopers, as well as members of the Air Force and the Navy who worked to provide fire coverage.
The American CNN network reported that the Israeli forces prepared for this operation for weeks, with the participation of hundreds of individuals from the army, the internal intelligence service, and a special police unit.
Were American forces involved in the operation?
Axios reported – citing a US administration official – that what it described as the “American kidnappers cell in Israel” helped in the return of the four detainees.
For its part, CNN quoted an unnamed American official as saying that an American cell in Israel contributed to the operation with the Israeli forces.
Tel Aviv Tribune bureau chief Walid Al-Omari did not rule out that the United States had helped in recovering the four detainees.
He said that from the first day of the Israeli war on the Gaza Strip, Tel Aviv received trained American generals who had fought the battles in Fallujah and Mosul in Iraq, and who supervised and directed the Israeli crews during the Gaza war.
Although Israel did not announce that it had received American support to recover its prisoners, American political and military officials had previously announced that they would help Israel reach those detained by the Palestinian resistance in Gaza.
Israeli websites reported that an American official arrived in Tel Aviv yesterday, Friday, to follow up on the operation, and the official was waiting at the pier that was established at the moment the operation was carried out.
Who has been restored?
A statement by the occupation army stated that the four prisoners were among those who were captured from a party in the Gaza envelope area on October 7, and they were 3 males and a female: Noa Argamani, Almoa Meir, Andrei Kozlov, and Shlomi Ziv.
The army statement stated that the prisoners’ health condition was good, and that they were transferred for medical examinations to Tel Hashomer Hospital.
What losses has the occupation announced in the operation so far?
The Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth reported that Al-Yamam Unit officer Arnon Zamora was killed during the operation to recover the four detainees.
The Israeli Broadcasting Authority also quoted a source as saying, “Gunmen chased the car that was evacuating the prisoners, opened fire on it, and damaged it.”
The authority added that the Israeli army did not succeed in bringing a helicopter near the place where the prisoners were evacuated, and that it was forced to seek additional reinforcements.
On the other hand, the Martyr Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas), announced that it, in conjunction with the Martyr Abu Ali Mustafa Brigades, targeted an Apache helicopter with a “SAM 7” missile in the sky of the Nuseirat camp.
Hamas confirmed – in a statement – that resistance fighters clashed with occupation army soldiers for long hours in the Nuseirat camp and inflicted losses on them.
What is the outcome of the massacre committed by the occupation?
The government media office in Gaza reported that the number of martyrs of the occupation massacre in the Nuseirat camp had risen to 210, with more than 400 injured.
Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital is crowded with the injured and the bodies of martyrs, most of whom are children and women who were placed on the floor and in the hospital corridors due to the lack of beds and basic medical supplies.
Ambulances continue to transport injured people from various areas of Nuseirat camp, which were subjected to intense Israeli bombardment.
What are the most prominent reactions?
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu:
- “Israel does not surrender to terrorism.”
- “We will recover all detainees this way or any other way.”
- The operation “will go down in the history books.”
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Galant:
- Special Forces operated under heavy fire and in a complex urban environment.
US President Joe Biden:
- “I welcome the return of the four Israeli detainees to their families.”
Families of prisoners:
- The Israeli government must remember that “it is its duty to return all 120 detainees” in the Strip.
How did Hamas comment on the operation?
The Hamas movement said – in a statement – that what the occupation army announced about the recovery of a number of its prisoners after more than 8 months of aggression will not change its strategic failure.
The movement added that the occupation army committed a horrific massacre against innocent civilians in the Nuseirat camp in the middle of the Gaza Strip, noting that the resistance still maintains the largest number of prisoners and is able to increase its yield.
She stressed that the United States’ participation in the operation carried out by the occupation in Nuseirat proves its complicity in the war crimes committed in the Gaza Strip and its lack of interest in the lives of civilians.
For his part, the head of the Hamas political bureau, Ismail Haniyeh, said, “The Palestinian people in Gaza will not surrender, and the resistance will continue to defend our rights in the face of this criminal enemy.”
Will this process affect the performance of the resistance?
What happened in Nuseirat will not change much in the course of the war, as the process of recovering two former prisoners and finding the bodies of some of the prisoners who were killed by the Israeli bombing did not result in a significant change in the course of the ongoing war in the Gaza Strip.
The resistance continued to exhaust the occupation forces and inflict heavy losses on them, which prompted army reserve units to search for volunteers to fight in Gaza through advertisements on the WhatsApp application, according to the Israeli Channel 12.
Quickly, the spokesman for the Al-Qassam Brigades, Abu Ubaida, commented by saying that “the enemy was able, through committing horrific massacres, to free some of his prisoners, but at the same time he killed some of them during the operation,” stressing that “the enemy’s prisoners were the first to be harmed by the war crime he committed in Nuseirat.” .
Abu Ubaida stressed that “the operation will pose a great danger to the enemy prisoners, and will have a negative impact on their conditions and lives.”
In this context, the military and strategic expert, Major General Muhammad Al-Samadi, ruled out that the operation would affect the resistance, and said, “Even if 10 soldiers from the occupation army remained among the prisoners, there would be a pressure card in the hands of the resistance to negotiate with them.”