New details on hostage rescue indicate operation was nearly canceled at the last minute
Conditions at one of the locations housing hostages were seen as suboptimal, but a decision was made to proceed; IDF issues footage of troops in Gaza during the extraction
Editor’s Note: This story previously included some details from a Jewish Chronicle report by writer Elon Perry claiming to offer inside information on elements of the June 2024 rescue operation. On September 13, 2024 the Chronicle removed Perry’s stories and ended its association with him after serious doubts emerged regarding the veracity of his reporting. Several paragraphs based on Perry’s reporting have been removed.
Israel’s June 8 operation to rescue four hostages in central Gaza was nearly canceled at the last minute, Channel 12 reported Friday.
According to the network, at 10 a.m. on Saturday, the head of operations at the Shin Bet security agency informed Shin Bet Director Ronen Bar and IDF Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi that conditions for the rescue were not optimal at one of the two locations in which the hostages were held.
This would make it more difficult to access both locations at the same moment — a critical element of the operation to prevent terror operatives from harming the hostages.
Security chiefs had a one-hour window to make a decision. After deliberations, the Shin Bet’s Operations Directorate recommended to move forward. Halevi and Bar approved and at 10:55 a.m. the order was given to launch the operation.
The report did not detail the problem or what actions were taken to mitigate it.
The IDF on Friday released footage from the raid, showing troops of the Paratroopers Brigade’s reconnaissance unit operating near central Gaza’s Nuseirat, as the rescued Israeli hostages and special forces were transferred to armored vehicles.
The video shows the paratroopers arriving at an area where the Yamam and Shin Bet officers became stuck with the rescued hostages due to massive enemy fire and a vehicle breakdown, and securing it.
The special forces, including fatally wounded Yamam officer Ch. Insp. Arnon Zmora, and the hostages were then extracted in armored vehicles and taken to the Netzarim Corridor area, from where they were airlifted to a hospital in Israel.
On Friday, the Shin Bet security agency published an image showing a makeup room during preparations for the hostage rescue mission.
On Tuesday the last of the four freed hostages was released from hospital, following a battery of medical tests and psychological care after eight months in Hamas captivity.
Noa Argamani, 26, was released on Tuesday afternoon from Ichilov Hospital in Tel Aviv following a series of checks, the hospital said.
Argamani has been one of the most recognizable faces of those abducted on October 7, following a widely circulated video of terrorists taking her from the Nova music festival on October 7, and separating her from her boyfriend, Avinatan Or, who remains in captivity.
Video shared to social media on Tuesday showed Argamani reuniting with Or’s mother, while other footage shared by Israeli media and the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit showed Argamani reuniting with her father, Yaakov, who celebrated his birthday on the day of the rescue.
Meir Jan, Kozlov and Ziv were released from Sheba Medical Center on Monday after they were carefully examined following their rescue.
Doctors who treated the rescued hostages said they were suffering from malnutrition, were beaten regularly and experienced great psychological distress during their captivity.
According to Israeli accounts, the rescue of Argamani, who was held separately from the three men rescued that day, was relatively smooth considering the circumstances, but a major gun battle erupted at the home where Meir Jan, Kozlov, and Ziv were held. During the firefight, Chief Inspector Arnon Zmora was critically wounded by Hamas fire. He later died.
A short while later, as the three hostages and Zmora were being extracted from Nuseirat, their vehicle came under fire, causing it to get stuck in Gaza. Other forces quickly reached the scene to rescue them, bringing them to a makeshift helipad in Gaza, from where they were airlifted to Tel Hashomer Hospital in central Israel.
According to the IDF, the rescue forces faced a massive amount of gunfire and RPG fire in Nuseirat, leading the ground troops and the Israeli Air Force to carry out major strikes in the area. The strikes, targeting the areas from where Hamas operatives were opening fire, were aimed at protecting the rescue forces and the hostages.
Hamas says over 270 people were killed in the operation. Israel says it knows of around 100. The IDF acknowledged that it killed Palestinian civilians amid the fighting, but it placed the blame on Hamas for holding hostages and fighting in a dense civilian environment.
It is believed that 116 hostages abducted by Hamas on October 7 remain in Gaza — not all of them alive.
Emanuel Fabian and agencies contributed to this report.
