After visiting hostages, PM hails ‘heroic operation that will be registered in the annals of Israel’

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says he approved the operation to release four hostages in Gaza “without hesitation” because he had faith in the heroic Israeli warriors who would carry it out.
The prime minister, delivering a brief statement at Shema Medical Center after visiting the freed hostages and their families, says that during his meeting with Andrey Kozlov, the freed hostage said he wrote in a notebook every day that he would be reborn, “and that is really what happened.”
“And I want to repeat and make clear that we will return everyone,” Netanyahu says, adding that Israel is working on more operations to return more captives.
“This is a day of unprecedented emotion for all citizens of Israel and many around the world, and for me personally” he says.

Saying he just met with all four hostages and their families, he notes that “We celebrated the birthday of Yaacov [Argamani] next to his [newly rescued] daughter [Noa]. And he said, ‘I got the greatest present I could possibly have expected.'”
Adds Netanyahu: “I want to repeat and make clear: We will bring them all back. We’re working right now on returning more hostages, on more possibilities. We will return them all.
“This operation was brought for my approval on Thursday evening,” he says. “I knew it was very complex and very dangerous. There’s a hair’s breadth between success and failure. I knew that, but I unhesitatingly approved it nonetheless.” He did so, the prime minister says, “because I have faith in the IDF, the Shin Bet and Israel police” — all of whom were involved in the rescue.
He calls the rescue “a heroic operation that will be registered in the annals of the people of Israel.”

He acknowledges the tragic cost, citing the death of Yamam officer Chief Inspector Arnon Zmora, the commander of the rescue team at one of the two buildings where the hostages were held. “One of the best of our sons has fallen… I know what pain his family is going through.”
Says Netanyahu: “He and his colleagues proved that the State of Israel has the strength and power and the will to fight those who seek to kill us, and that the IDF can get anywhere.”
He concludes: “Will return all our hostages one way or another.”