Massacre in Gaza after Israel frees four hostages: “The bombing came from all directions” | International

Julud Shalak, a displaced Gazan, holds a young child with a bandaged head and wounds on his face. “He is the only survivor in the family,” he explains. “He and his mother. The rest are gone (died), about 14. Even more than 14, because they are in the rubble. The streets are full of corpses.” This is one of the stories collected by Al Jazeera television network about the massacre that unfolded in the Nuseira refugee camp on Saturday by the Israeli army to free four hostages in a surprise operation that involved hundreds of soldiers. While Israel is ecstatic about the success of the rescue (the largest of the war), Gazans are realizing its cost as time goes on. Although the balance is unclear, it is one of the largest massacres in eight months of war.

On Sunday, the health ministry of the Hamas government in Gaza raised the death toll to 274 (among them 64 children and 57 women) and the number of wounded to 698. Israeli military spokesman Daniel Hagari admitted that he knew of a death toll of “less than 100.” “I don’t know how many of them are terrorists,” he clarified. A day later, another army spokesman, Peter Lerner, refused to give figures or confirm whether civilians were among the victims: “Hamas doesn’t know how many people were killed, we don’t know how many were killed.”

The victims were transferred to two hospitals: Al Awda, which has already had to install an extension and which has reported receiving 116 bodies; and the Martyrs de Al Aqsa, which relies on a single electric generator to function, has been working beyond its capacity for months and has collapsed after 94 deaths. It was “complete chaos”, in the words of Karin Huster, a medical officer for Doctors Without Borders at Al Aqsa Martyrs, with the emergency room “completely filled with patients on the ground due to the Nuseirat bombings.” In a short time, hundreds of wounded people gathered, including children and women, with “the full range of wounds of war”, she said in an audio, the contents of which were released by the NGO. The Ministry of Health asked people to come and donate blood and regretted that ambulances could not respond to requests for help.

Images broadcast by television channels with a presence on the ground (Israel prevents access to the international press) and by witnesses on social networks show intense aerial bombardment that generates columns of smoke, as well as ruined buildings and dead and wounded people lying on the floor. Artillery and repeated rifle fire can also be heard in the background, while dozens of civilians run for cover, screaming in fear or trying to record with their cell phones.

“The shooting and gunfire came from all directions. I didn’t even know what the origin was. I’m 32 years old and I never thought I would live a moment like this,” recalled Mohammed al-Tahrani, one of the refugee camp’s residents. In nearby Der el Bala, three unidentified children weep uncontrollably on camera as they explain that they come from the Al Dawa mosque area, an hour’s walk away in Nuseirat. “We went to buy bread and they did this to us,” says one man, referring to the bombing. They don’t know where their parents are.

Another Nuseirat resident, Nidal Abdo, who was shopping in the market, estimated that there were about 150 bombs that fell in less than 10 minutes. “While we were running, others fell in the market,” he told CNN. In one video (in which his name is not revealed) a crying boy says he saw his friend die while they were cycling together: “We saw death with our own eyes. “He was at Abu Sarar square (one of the bombed areas of Nuseirat), they bombed and he died on the bicycle.” There is a photo of a dead child still on the bicycle in the middle of the street.

Hamas’ armed wing, the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, has assured that the army killed three hostages (out of the 120 left in Gaza) in a bombing raid to free four hostages, one of whom also had American nationality. Shortly after, they released a video of psychological warfare in which three bodies can be seen blurred, but without determining their identity or cause of death. The Israeli army has “categorically” denied this.

The Israeli armed forces have admitted that they fired on land, sea and air, as various militias tried to prevent the rescue – which cost the life of a border police officer – with intense gunfire from all directions. The secret Israeli soldiers were discovered and word spread. In pictures, Palestinians are seen running from the bombed area and shouting at others to stay away because there are “violent explosions” and “special forces”.

They were “Special Forces” Mystarvimwho learn to blend in with Arabs in order to infiltrate Palestinian territory, featured in the famous television series Fauda.They carried mattresses in the vehicle to present themselves as one of the thousands of displaced people from the Rafah region (where Israel launched an offensive last month) who were looking to rent an apartment in Nuseirat. Others were disguised as Hamas fighters.

Details revealed by Israeli television, witnesses and images of the vehicles outline the rescue operation, which lasted about two hours from the first bomb blast. They were in two vehicles, “a small Nissan brand; and a large truck,” according to what an eyewitness told television. Israel has denied that the truck was humanitarian aid. In photos taken in the area, it appears to be somewhat commercial.

Forces from an operational unit of the intelligence services and an elite unit of the border police then exited the vehicles and moved quickly between the tents, while aircraft continued to bomb the area as support. “I was concerned that there would be a rain of fire at a relatively high rate to ensure that no one came near the vehicle,” the commander of the air mission, a captain identified only by the letter Aleph, told Channel 12 Israeli television’s military correspondent, Nir Dvori. One drone killed a militiaman with a grenade launcher who was preparing to fire at the truck.

The soldiers made a hole in the wall to access one of the two buildings. They entered the two apartments simultaneously so that no one could inform the other hostages. In one building was Noa Arghamani; in the other, about 200 meters away, three men: Almog Meir Jan, Andrey Kozlov and Shlomi Ziv. The four were taken hostage on October 7 in a massive assault on an open festival near Gaza that continued until dawn.

The evacuation vehicle had technical problems and could not move off the road. In order not to be surrounded by militiamen, the army mobilized several tanks that were stationed nearby for emergency situations. According to the captain, the air force continued to bomb the entire area on a massive scale. Fifteen minutes later, they towed the vehicle to the coast, where helicopters that would take the hostages out of Gaza were waiting for them. The United States has denied that it was through a floating dock set up for the entry of humanitarian aid.

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