Israel cheers rescue of 4 hostages as Hamas says raid killed 274

Israelis connected Sunday cheered the rescue of 4 hostages from war-torn Gaza portion Palestinians counted the cost, with Hamas officials saying 274 radical were killed and hundreds wounded during the daytime raid.

Special forces fought dense weapon battles with Palestinian militants connected Saturday successful cardinal Gaza’s crowded Nuseirat exile campy country arsenic they swooped successful to escaped the captives from 2 buildings and past flew them retired by helicopters.

The Israeli subject said the extraction squad and captives came nether dense weapon and grenade fire, which killed 1 constabulary officer, portion Israel’s aerial unit launched strikes that reduced adjacent buildings to rubble.

The Hamas-run Gaza Strip’s wellness ministry said 274 radical were killed successful what it labelled the “Nuseirat massacre”, updating an earlier toll of 210 from the authorities media bureau which said the fatalities included galore women and children, figures that could not beryllium independently verified.

The wellness ministry said 698 radical were wounded.

“My kid was crying, acrophobic of the dependable of the level firing astatine us,” said 1 Gaza woman, Hadeel Radwan, 32, recounting however they fled the aggravated combat arsenic she carried her seven-month-old daughter.

“We each felt that we wouldn’t survive,” she told AFP, condemning “this brutal concern that volition not fto america live”.

Many Israelis shed tears of joyousness erstwhile they heard of the merchandise of the 4 captives, each reported successful bully wellness — Noa Argamani, 26, Almog Meir Jan, 22, Andrey Kozlov, 27, and Shlomi Ziv, 41.

The 4 had been abducted from the Nova euphony festival during Hamas’s October 7 onslaught erstwhile video footage showed gunmen taking distant Argamani connected a motorbike arsenic she cried “Don’t termination me!”

The service released footage of the freed captives embracing their household members, and the authorities property bureau showed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visiting them successful hospital.

Israel’s starring dailies, Yedioth Ahronoth and Israel Hayom, showed Argamani embraced by her begetter connected their beforehand pages nether the aforesaid elemental headline: “Home”.

Financial paper Calcalist hailed a “heroic operation” that had fixed Israelis “a fewer hours of grace”, portion the left-leaning Haaretz regular called the rescue cognition a “morale boost” for the nation.