Jerusalem, Jun 8 (EFE).- At least 210 people were killed and more than 400 were injured after Israel struck the Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip, the Hamas-controlled Gaza government said Saturday, while Israel announced that four hostages had been rescued during the operations.
“We condemn the aggression of the ‘Israeli’ occupation against civilians, children and women, and against safe homes in Nuseirat camp and against the central governorate, and we hold the occupation and the US administration fully responsible for this catastrophic crime in which the blood of dozens of innocent civilians was shed,” Hamas said in a statement.
The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF), meanwhile, announced that four hostages had been rescued during its operations in the Nuseirat camp.
Noa Argamani, 25, Almog Meir Jan, 21, Andrey Kozlov, 27, and Shlomi Ziv, 40, who were kidnapped by Palestinian militants from the Nova music festival on Oct. 7, were in “good medical condition” and have been transferred to a hostpial near Tel Aviv for further medical examinations, the IDF said in a statement.
Israeli defense minister Yoav Gallant said the country was “overjoyed” to have rescued the hostages after a “complex, heroic operation.”
“We will keep fighting until (the remaining) hostages are home,” Gallant added.
The head of the Israeli opposition, centrist Yair Lapid, also celebrated their safe return, which he said was “a great light in the terrible darkness,” and congratulated the security forces for the “bold and courageous operation.”
Of the 251 people who were kidnapped on Oct. 7 during the Hamas attack which triggered the ongoing escalation, some 116 remain in captivity in the enclave, at least 40 of whom have died, Israel says. Hamas says more than 70 hostages have died, blaming Israel’s constant shelling of the enclave for their deaths.
Since the war began in October, Israel and Hamas have only reached a single, one-week truce agreement at the end of November, which allowed the release of 105 hostages in exchange for 240 Palestinian prisoners.
The Gazan government, meanwhile, said that the Al Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in the nearby city of Deir al Balah, the only one still operating in central Gaza, has been facing a catastrophic situation for days.
Palestinian media reported that the Israeli army contacted the displaced people sheltering in tents in the hospital courtyard to order their evacuation ahead of the attack on Saturday.
Gazan authorities said ambulances could not reach the victims in Nuseirat because of the intensity of the Israeli bombardment, which they described as a “barbaric and brutal aggression”.
At least 40 people were killed at the Nuseirat refugee camp on Thursday, when Israeli forces hit a school run by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) that was housing hundreds of displaced people but which Israel said was being used by Hamas as an operational base. EFE
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