Daily Sabah – June 9, 2024
Israel kills 274 Palestinians during hostage rescue raid on Gaza
Israel killed at least 274 Palestinians during a raid on central Gaza's Nuesirat that saw four hostages rescued on Saturday.
The Israeli military said Noa Argamani, 26, Almog Meir Jan, 22, Andrey Kozlov, 27, and Shlomi Ziv, 41, were pulled out in a "complex" mission.
It released footage and images of them being extracted by helicopter and then reuniting with loved ones in emotional scenes at a Tel Aviv hospital.
In Nuseirat, where the hostages were reportedly being held, Palestinians described coming under intense bombardment and heavy gunfire.
The hostages are among seven that Israeli forces have freed alive since Palestinian resistance members seized 251 people in their Oct. 7 incursion of southern Israel.
There are now 116 hostages remaining in Gaza, including 41 the army says are dead.
'Horror must stop'
News of the freed captives was met with celebrations and cheers in Israel, while anxieties over the fate of the remaining hostages prompted thousands to gather in Tel Aviv demanding an end to the eight-month-old war.
"They won't be able to release all of them in a military operation," said Michael Levy, whose brother Or is still being held.
Near Nuseirat on Saturday, an AFP photographer saw scores of Palestinians running for cover in fear of further Israeli strikes.
After the operation, piles of smoldering rubble and chunks of concrete clogged the streets.
The Gazan media office confirmed Sunday that the number of victims from the Israeli occupation's massacre in the Nuseirat camp has risen to 274 and more than 400 wounded.
Israeli, meanwhile police said an officer was mortally wounded during the rescue operation.
Nuseirat resident Khalil al-Tahrawi described hearing gun battles and shelling from his shelter.
"The Israeli warplanes began bombing us in all directions to cover up the withdrawal process," he said.
The operation came days after an Israeli strike on the Nuseirat school run by the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, which a Gaza hospital said had killed 40 people.
UNRWA condemned Israel for striking a facility it said had been housing 6,000 displaced people.
Posters that read 'Home Now' depicting the portraits of the four rescued Israeli hostages, in Tel Aviv, Israel, June 8, 2024. (AFP Photo)
Israel accuses Hamas and its allies in Gaza of using civilian infrastructure, including U.N.-run facilities, as operational centers, charges the resistance groups deny.
The war has brought widespread devastation to Gaza, with one in 20 people dead or wounded, according to the Hamas-run territory's Health Ministry. Most of Gaza's 2.4 million inhabitants are displaced.
Aid groups and the United Nations have also accused Israel of blocking or delaying the entry of food, water, medicines and fuel into Gaza, depriving people of lifesaving supplies.
Israel has blamed shortages on aid agencies' inability to distribute supplies.
U.N. chief Antonio Guterres said on Saturday that 135 UNRWA workers have died in the war, the highest number of U.N. personnel killed in a single conflict.
"This horror must stop," he said.
Cease-fire 'essential'
U.S. President Joe Biden reiterated his call for a cease-fire while welcoming news of Israel's freed hostages.
"We won't stop working until all the hostages are home and a cease-fire is reached. That's essential to happen," he said.
He was speaking in Paris alongside French President Emmanuel Macron, who said: "We rejoice at the release of the four Israeli hostages."
Israel, however, faces growing diplomatic isolation, with international court cases accusing it of war crimes and several European countries recognizing a Palestinian state.
Thousands of people marched through London on Saturday calling for a cease-fire, while demonstrators outside the White House protested against Washington's support for Israel amid Gaza's deadliest-ever war.
The Hamas attack that triggered the war resulted in the deaths of 1,194 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures.
Israel's retaliatory military offensive has killed at least 36,801 people in Gaza, also mostly civilians, according to the territory's Health Ministry.
Efforts to mediate the first cease-fire in the conflict since a weeklong pause in November appear to have stalled after Biden offered the latest plan for a multi-phase truce and hostage release.
Major sticking points include Hamas insisting on a permanent truce and full Israeli withdrawal from all parts of Gaza – demands Israel has rejected.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also faces pressure from within his government to end the war, with war cabinet minister Benny Gantz threatening to quit.
Gantz canceled a news conference scheduled for Saturday where Israeli media had speculated he would announce his resignation.
In brief remarks on Israeli television, Gantz on Saturday evening urged his colleagues in government to "look responsibly" into "how we can continue from here."
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Saturday called on Hamas to accept the latest truce proposal outlined by Biden at the start of the month.
"The only thing standing in the way of achieving this cease-fire is Hamas. It is time for them to accept the deal," he said.
Blinken is set to visit Israel and key regional partners Egypt, Jordan and Qatar from Monday.
Gaza death toll crosses 37,000 as Israel kills 283 Palestinians
Israel's genocidal war on Gaza has now killed at least 37,084 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip since last October, the local Health Ministry said Sunday.
A ministry statement added that 84,494 others have also been injured in the onslaught.
"The Israeli occupation committed eight massacres against families in the Gaza Strip, resulting in 283 martyrs and 814 injries during the past 24 hours," the statement said.
The ministry also reported that the death toll of the "Israeli occupation's massacre" of Palestinians in Nuseirat camp in the central Gaza Strip on Saturday had climbed to 274 deaths and 698 injuries, including critical cases.
The Israeli army on Saturday reported that it had retrieved four hostages from the central Gaza Strip in a deadly attack on Palestinians in the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza Strip.
"A number of victims are still under the rubble and on the roads, and ambulance and civil defense crews cannot reach them," it added.
Israel has continued its brutal offensive on Gaza since a Hamas incursion last Oct. 7 despite a U.N. Security Council resolution demanding an immediate cease-fire.
Eight months into the Israeli war, vast tracts of Gaza lay in ruins amid a crippling blockade of food, clean water, and medicine.
Israel stands accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice, whose latest ruling ordered Tel Aviv to immediately halt its operation in the southern city of Rafah, where over a million Palestinians had sought refuge from the war before it was invaded on May 6.
Palestinians 'will not surrender, resistance will continue' — Hamas
Ismail Haniyeh has said Israel has refused to halt its "war of annihilation" against the Palestinian people and continues to massacre children and women.
The head of Hamas' Political Bureau has reaffirmed that resistance forces would continue to defend Palestinian rights against Israel after attacks on the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza.
In a statement on Saturday, Ismail Haniyeh asserted that Israel "continues to massacre Palestinian children and women in the Nuseirat Refugee Camp and Deir al Balah in central Gaza."
He said Israel has refused to halt its "war of annihilation" against the Palestinian people despite the world labelling Tel Aviv a "child murderer" — a reference to the UN adding Israel to the blacklist of countries and organisations that harm children in conflict zones.
"Our people will not surrender, the resistance will continue to defend our rights against this murderous enemy," he added.
'Military failure in Gaza'
Haniyeh emphasised that if Israel "believes it can impose its choices on the Palestinians, it must understand that that is delusional."
He further stated that Hamas "will not accept any agreement that does not guarantee the security of the Palestinian people."
Haniyeh asserted that Israel has suffered a military failure in Gaza and is now at its "lowest level" politically and morally, stressing the urgent need for action from the international community.
His remarks came after the Israeli army announced that it had managed to free four hostages held in central Gaza.
Earlier on Saturday, the Israeli army launched an offensive on several areas in central Gaza, resulting in the killing of scores of Palestinians, mainly children and the injury of dozens more, according to Palestinian medical sources.
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