The inside story of Israel’s dramatic Gaza hostage rescue
Previously unknown details of the daring mission, which was the result of weeks of intelligence work culminating in a 45 minute shoot-out with Hamas terrorists
BY ELON PERRY
JUNE 13, 2024 08:32
On 12 May, Israel received intelligence about the location of four hostages in the Nuseirat refugee camp area in the Gaza Strip. From that day on, every branch of Israeli intelligence was focused on the area 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, to locate the exact location. A team of undercover ‘Mista’arvim’ (units that assimilate into local populations to gather intelligence) were sent there, mainly in the local market of Nuseirat.
Their role was not only to gather intelligence from locals but also to check information from the interrogations of captured terrorists. In addition, information was gathered by aerial observation and other sophisticated technological means.
After 19 days of intensive cooperative intelligence gathering work, the combined units managed to compile solid and accurate information about the location of the Israeli hostages. It was discovered that the hostages were being held in two separate buildings in the same area. Noa Argamani was held in the first floor of one and three other hostages were in another building, 800 metres away, on the third floor.
At the beginning of June, this information was brought to the War Cabinet, and the Chief of Staff of the IDF and head of the Shin Bet were asked to present a rescue plan. The intelligence was kept top secret. Even the other forces in Gaza, including senior commanders, were not informed about it. As the War Cabinet discussed options, the preparations and training for the operation began.
In order to finally verify the information and to prepare the ground for the operation, another team of undercover soldiers (including several women dressed in hijabs and long black dresses) was sent into the Nuseirat refugee camp. Pretending to be two Gazan families looking for a large house in Nuseirat, they arrived in two cheap-looking old cars loaded with domestic items characteristic of those families displaced in the Strip, such as mattresses and clothing identical to those of the locals.
When the residents of the Nuseirat camp asked the undercovers where they came from and what they were looking to do in Nuseirat, they replied that they had fled from Rafah due to “deadly shelling from the Israeli army”, and decided to rent a house in the area. Then they pointed to the building where Noa Argamani was being held. They showed one of the locals a large amount of cash and offered to pay three times the going rate for rent. The local agreed to help and within three hours found a large house on the very street where Argamani was held. This was only 800 metres away from where the other three hostages were held.
A few days later, after settling into the house and getting to know the area, including shopping at the local market, and realising that they did not arouse suspicion, the undercovers began their mission: verifying the location where the hostages were held. They split into two teams. One team consisted of two commandos, a man dressed as a typical Gazan local and a woman dressed in a long black dress and hijab. They began marching down the street towards the ‘Al-Auda’ medical centre where, in a nearby residential building 200 metres from the hospital, Noa Argamani was held. The undercovers walked with complete confidence as if they were walking down a street in Tel Aviv. To add to their authenticity, they stopped from time to time at stalls along the sides of the street, showing interest in the products while complaining about the difficult situation in Gaza. This was done in fluent Arabic with a perfect Gazan accent. Behind them, walked four more undercover men, armed to give backup in case a ‘Fauda-like’ situation occurred (Fauda in Arabic means unexpected chaos).
The second team consisted of four female soldiers dressed as typical Arab women (one feigning being pregnant) carrying plastic bags full of food products and vegetables. They walked in two pairs (a young Muslim woman is not allowed to walk around alone) towards a nearby residential building, where, on the third floor, the three male hostages were held. Behind them walked four more undercover men armed to give them backup.
Meanwhile five other members of the undercover team stayed at the house to guard it and make sure the teams had not been exposed and that no nasty surprises would await them.
Three hours later, at the prearranged time, the two teams came back to the rented house and began to process the information they had obtained. Now it was confirmed: the four hostages were being held in two homes of Gazan families. The force commander confirmed to Israel that the two locations were correct.
The cabinet decided to act. Twenty-eight fighters from the ‘Yamam’, a commando unit that specialises in fighting terrorists and rescuing hostages, began training on two specially built models that replicated the two buildings where the hostages were held. After three days of training, the commander of the force informed the IDF Chief of Staff, Herzi Halevi, who then informed the Minister of Defence, Yoav Gallant, that they were ready to carry out the operation. After Prime Minister Netanyahu had been informed and given permission to launch the operation, it was able to proceed.
On Thursday night, 5 June, the undercovers were ordered to leave the area of Nuseirat refugee camp without arousing suspicion, although four remained to keep an eye on the buildings to make sure that the hostages were not transferred to another location.
Only at this time were senior Israeli commanders and other cabinet members informed about the operation.
On Friday morning, 6 June, the 28 commandos of the ‘Yamam’ unit began making their way in two teams towards the two buildings in Nuseirat refugee camp. To maintain the element of surprise as much as possible, the unit’s fighters travelled hiding in two trucks.
Just before 11 am the commandos arrived with precise timing at the two targets and awaited the order to attack. Observations and technological surveillance measures from IDF aircraft reported that the area was ‘clean’, with no suspicious movements near the two buildings. The information and live coverage of the alleys and the 800-metre-long street that separated the two target buildings were transmitted directly to the screens in two command and control rooms in Israel from which the operation was being overseen.
At 11.00 am exactly the commandos received the order to go ahead and stormed both buildings simultaneously in full coordination, to prevent the terrorists from endangering the hostages and the entire operation.
The Israeli soldiers eliminated the terrorists guarding Noa Argamani, and within six minutes had rescued her unharmed from the apartment. They then took her to a waiting helicopter that immediately flew her back to Israel.
But while the rescue of Argamani went smoothly, the task of rescuing the other three hostages on the third floor of the second building became complicated.
They were held in the home of Dr Ahmed al-Jamal, a medical doctor, who was a Hamas activist. His son, Abdullah, a journalist who had written for Al-Jazeera, was also staying in the apartment.
Some of the commandos used a ladder to enter directly into the room where the three hostages were held. This coincided with the entry of the rest of the force who came up the stairs from the main entrance of the building.
But Commander Arnon Zamora’s team, which broke into the apartment at the head of the force, encountered massive fire from around thirty Hamas terrorists in the apartment They fired with machine guns, threw grenades and some even fired rocket-propelled grenade missiles at the surprised Israelis. This is how Arnon Zamora was killed.
The fact of the presence of 30 terrorists in the apartment had not been known to the undercover teams who had reported the information about the hostages’ location back to Israel. It is assumed that the terrorists arrived at the apartment only that morning or the night before, to strengthen the guarding of the three hostages.
Nevertheless, the experienced Israeli commando fighters were not deterred by the deadly surprise and continued to fight the terrorists with determination at close range, joined by the other fighters who were waiting outside the apartment. The three hostages had to hide in the bathroom of the apartment, protected by several Israeli fighters, during the battle. There was no way to leave the apartment due to the massive unexpected gunfire as it might endanger the hostages.
After a long face-to-face battle, the Israelis managed to eliminate all the terrorists in the apartment. But during the shooting from dozens of guns inside a crowded two-room apartment, Arnon Zamora was hit and lay on the floor bleeding, while three medics and a doctor leant over him, under heavy fire, trying to save his life.
Meanwhile, dozens of terrorists emerged from the tunnels around the building and began to fire at the Israeli fighters with machine guns and RPG missiles. The Israelis started making their way out of the building (several of them carrying Arnon Zamora on a stretcher), running through smoke-filled alleys and the nearby market which was crowded with thousands of Gazans who would not have hesitated to lynch them. The Israeli forces tried, under constant fire, to get to the rescue vehicle that was waiting for them, but it was hit by two RPG missiles.
The commander of the operation in Israel then activated ‘Plan B’, the rescue plan that had been prepared in advance: a daring operation under massive, very close fire from the enemy, covered by Israeli fire from ground, sea and air.
With the help of tanks, hundreds of soldiers (from the Golani and Givati infantry brigades and paratroopers) charged on foot into the refugee camp, fighting face-to-face battles with Hamas terrorists while navy ships covered them from the west and air force helicopters from the east. Fire from the air hit the terrorists just ten metres from the Israeli soldiers.
The reinforcement forces and the air force managed to isolate the battle scene, providing a safe escape route for the main force escorting the three hostages.
At the end of an exhausting and continuous battle the Israeli fighters eliminated all the armed threats in the battle arena.
Hamas claims that during the rescue operation in the crowded streets of the refugee camp, 274 Palestinians were killed. However, the IDF says that 104 Palestinians were killed or wounded – all of whom were Hamas terrorists or armed civilians who collaborated with the terrorist organisation.
After the battle, the three abductees (who had kept their cool throughout) were led by the fighters to one of the Israeli helicopters waiting for them and flew them to Israel.
Meanwhile, the air force planes bombed the building which collapsed within seconds.
The special forces soldiers then boarded the other two helicopters that took off back to Israel. Attempts to revive Arnon Zamora continued on the short flight, but l he was pronounced dead on arrival in hospital.
Elon Perry is a journalist and former commando in the Golani Brigade of the IDF
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Andry Kozlov, one of the four abductees, talks about his captivity experiences in Gaza
Andrey was kidnapped on October 7th from the music festival in the fields of Kibbutz Reim, where he worked as a security guard. He was rescued together with Noa Argamani (26), Almog Meir Jan (21) and Shlomi Ziv (40) in a special operation by the Israeli security forces after 246 days in Hamas captivity.
While Noa Argamani was heled in a separate building, the three abductees, Andrey, Almog, and Shlomi, were held at a Palestinian family’s home just a few streets away.
The house was separated in two with blankets and dark curtains. One half was used by a Palestinian family who were instructed to avoid any contact with the abductees, and the other accommodated the abductees guarded by armed Hamas terrorists.
Could you please share your experiences with us, I asked Andrey?
“We experienced shocking, inhumane things, some of which I cannot share because of shame”.
For a brief while, the interview appeared to have stalled. Andrey found it hard to talk about his experiences. He would respond shortly, with one or two words to the indirect questions I presented. I then recommended we talk about his personal background, his family in Russia, and his new girlfriend, hoping he would open his heart and share the horror he had experienced. And it worked. After a long friendly conversation seasoned with laughter and jokes, he began to reveal what he had kept hidden deep in his heart:
“We were held in a dark flat with hermetically closed windows; I couldn’t see anything, and I wasn’t sure if it was day or night. For two months, our hands were tied behind our backs, and our legs were shackled with rusty chains that hurt terribly and made it difficult to sit or lie down. We were forced to defecate in front of terrorists who mocked and laughed at us, telling us that Israel had forgotten about us and that we would never be free. They forced us to study the Koran every day. They beat us five or six times a day, for no reason. In those moments, images flashed through my mind from stories I had read about sadistic guards who abused prisoners to satisfy their morbid lust. I needed to pee, but they wouldn’t allow me. Only after two days, they took me to the restroom. Previously, they just placed an empty bottle in front of me and instructed me to urinate into it while my hands were tied behind my back. When they discovered I was struggling, they dragged me to the bathroom leashed like a dog, while shouting ‘go-go-go’. I said that I needed to take my pants off but my hands were tied, but they laughed and continued to drag me with the rope while chanting ‘go-go-go’. It was humiliating. I was totally helpless”.
After a short silence, while sipping from a glass of water, Andrei continues with a bitter smile on his face.
“After the Israeli Air Force bombardment intensified, they scattered us all to different locations. I found myself on a dusty floor littered with construction materials. They secured the room, turned off the light, and left me alone with my hands tied behind my back for the night. There were no blankets or pillows, only a dust-covered floor. I have a dust allergy so I couldn’t sleep. After two weeks, I was transferred to another floor, along with numerous other abductees from other floors of the building. Only after my eyes weren’t veiled did I realize that we were in a construction site.”
Do you remember how long you were held in that construction site?
“I think it was just 4 or 5 days as we were moved again. Bbecause of the incessant bombings, the terrorists began to panic. I overheard exchanges of shouts in Arabic between them. Suddenly, they began violently shoving us out and loaded us into vans. After a tense terrifying ride while bombs dropping close next to us, the van I was in came to a stop, and I was pushed into a building. I didn’t know what happened to the other abductees or where they were taken. From then on, I was moved almost every day from apartment to apartment, from tunnel to tunnel, while being shackled in both my hands and feet, and my eyes covered. After about two months of indescribable suffering, I was transferred to an apartment in the Nuseirat neighborhood, where I met two Israeli abductees. (Almog Meir Jan and Shlomi Ziv. E.P)
Andrey Kozlov immigrated to Israel from St. Petersburg all by himself. Both his parents and his brother decided to stay in Russia due to work constraints and personal commitments. In Israel, Andrey struggled financially. Despite being a clever and healthy young guy, he was unable to work since he did not speak Hebrew. Left with no choice, he worked as a security guard in stores and malls, where not mastering the Hebrew language was not an issue. When the organizers of the Berei festival were looking for security guards, he applied and was accepted.
“When the shooting began,” Andrei continues, “the music stopped and everyone began looking for ways to flee the burning field. I also started running to the open, looking for the kibbutz’s entrance, but I was met by a swarm of armed terrorists who fired at us nonstop. Then, I leaped into a ditch, and another Israeli jumped after me, who subsequently turned out to be Shlomi Ziv, one of the men I would be in captivity with in the future. But then, when I was sure that I was safe, two armed men forcibly pulled me from the ditch, and within seconds I found myself in a green van that looked like a military vehicle with Shlomi and a few others, among them two young girls. I was certain that the Israeli army had arrived to save us from the raging inferno; I had no idea I was being kidnapped. We drove for six or seven tense minutes before I realized the van was heading west, towards Gaza, rather than Israel. Then I recognized that the bearded man seated behind us, wearing a green bandana and clutching a Kalashnikov rifle, was not an Israeli soldier who had come to our rescue, but a Hamas terrorist with hostile intents.
By the way, something funny happened during that creepy ride. The terrorist ordered Shlomi to drive the vehicle. Something that became a joke in the ensuing days of captivity, both among us abductees and among the terrorists. It turned out that this young terrorist did not possess a driver’s license”.
After a loud rumbling laugh accompanied with some phrases in Russian that I couldn’t understand,
Andrey continues.
“When we drove through the breached wall on the border with Gaza, we witnessed fields full of Gazans, some on bicycles, some on donkeys, all dancing for delight. Their excitement is unbridled and barbarous. I remember the face of one of them in particular. He looked like a predatory animal. His eyes wide open, filled with malice. Some of them attempted to get into our car, we covered our faces with our hands. Shlomi was driving rapidly and nearly ran over some Gazans.
After a tensed drive that felt like a scene from an action film, the car stopped somewhere on the outskirts of Gaza. We were all ordered to get out of the vehicle, while being pushed violently into a residential building. Then six armed guys took us to the second floor of a building and forced us into one of the apartments, where our hands were bound behind our backs. Horrified and shocked we sat on the chilly floor, and I’m trying to figure out how to tell the kidnappers that I’m a Russian citizen, and that they got the wrong person”.
What goes through your head in the first few moments of being tied up and lying on the floor?
“I recall thinking one thing: I have to survive this. I attempt to distract myself with other thoughts, like it’s only a movie or a dream. I had numerous mantras that I repeated to myself in Russian.
I am still alive, every day is a gift, my family is waiting for me to come back alive. I kept saying to myself that I must return to my family, while reciting the advice from the holocaust survival Viktor Frankl’s book: ‘If you have something to live for, like a loving family, or some work to finish, then you can survive anything”
Do you remember what was the worst place you were kept at?
“There were different conditions and different people anywhere I was kept. I am unable to rate them as they were all very bad, difficult to survive, experiences that leave you with deep scars. However, I remember one place in particular that was different. It was one of the apartments I was transferred to. There was a young armed guard who brought a deck of cards and played with me, and from time to time he would let me watch the news on TV, that’s how I realized that the situation was horrible and there were hundreds of dead and many hostages”.
How about the place from which you were successfully rescued, was it better?
“The conditions were seemingly better. Our hands and feet were no longer chained, we were not bitten often as before, we didn’t have to ask for permission to go to the bathroom. Unlike the previous places, where the guards wore masks so that we wouldn’t recognize them, here they walked around freely, with no mask. However, they didn’t agree to tell us their real names. They all introduced themselves as ‘Mohammed.’ So, we had to give them names; The tall Mohammed, the dark Mohammed, the big-eyed Mohammed, the short Mohammed.” (Andrey is laughing)
How were you feeling? Has the improvement in conditions given you hope for liberation?
“The feelings of despair and fear seem to have disappeared, however, the feeling of being locked up, with no release date as inmates in civilian prisons have, was quite oppressive. What helped me keep sane and active were Shlomi and Almog, with whom I spent many months in one small room. They taught me Hebrew and I taught them Russian. At some point the kidnappers brought us sheets of paper on which we formulated trivia questions and crossword puzzles. Sometimes I did some drawing but was unable to take them with me when the heroic Israeli angels burst into the room through the window in complete surprise.”
Finaly Andrey, what would you take from this whole unexpected experience?
“I managed to learn Hebrew fast and at a level I never dreamed of. Ironically, as a captive who needed something to pass the time with, I had a rare opportunity not only to learn the language every day, 10 hours a day, but also to practice it with two Hebrew speakers, my friends Almog and Shlomi. I’m not sure I could have learned Hebrew in my usual everyday routine as a free person”.
(Andrey bursts with lough)
Three IDF women’s astonishing acts of courage amid the terror of October 7
Extreme bravery in wartime is far from uncommon in Israel. Female heroism, however, stirs the soul with particular poignancy. These are the stories of just three of the many young Israeli women who fought back when the forces of evil descended
BY ELON PERRY
JULY 11, 2024 14:30
Captain Bar Zohar
l During the first hours of the attack, Captain Bar Zohar and her team encountered two vans carrying 12 Hamas terrorists armed with Kalashnikovs and shoulder-fired missile launchers. They came under heavy fire and one of the soldiers from Bar’s team was killed immediately, while Bar herself was seriously injured.
Despite her injury, Bar remained calm. She ordered her crew to abandon their vehicle and take cover behind it, while she fired continuously from the front at the vans of terrorists, standing up, fully exposed to the fire, to provide her team with backup.
She knew her chances against 12 terrorists were slim, but she nonetheless remained upright in her punctured vehicle – which was about to explode at any moment – and continued to fire at the terrorists. Despite being weakened by her severe injury, her shooting was accurate and she managed to allow her team enough time to run to a nearby ditch and hide.
As she was shooting, one of the terrorists’ vans smashed into her vehicle. The Hamas driver had been panicked by Bar’s accurate shooting and abandoned his van. Despite being on the verge of losing consciousness and covered in blood, Bar somehow climbed into the abandoned vehicle and started driving it towards a kibbutz, shouting to her team to jump in from the ditch.
In doing so, Bar was applying one of her qualities for which she was renowned by her fellow soldiers: an ability to improvise, a trait she was born with and which was discovered during the challenging tests she had to pass to join the special unit in which she served.
The other terrorist van gave chase. Bar’s car began to zigzag because she was drifting in and out of consciousness due to loss of blood. But that zigzagging meant the terrorists were unable to shoot accurately at Bar’s team. They, however, started returning fire at the terrorists – and were able to help Bar control the vehicle.
After a bold and tense chase, the zigzagging car reached the kibbutz where they were met by an IDF team. Bar stopped the car, but her head immediately slumped onto the steering wheel.
Her team ran towards the IDF troops in the hope they could save the heavily bleeding Bar. Tragically, despite their efforts to save her, she died from massive blood loss.
At the age of eight, Bar Zohar had been identified as a genius-level mathematician and began studying the subject at Bar-Ilan University. At nine, she informed her parents that she was missing her friends and the games they played together, and that she was no longer interested in studying with adults. This special girl was self-possessed enough to tell her parents that she was not prepared to relinquish her childhood.
In 2001, she joined a secret elite intelligence unit, after preliminary army tests revealed that she had outstanding qualities such as a phenomenal memory, a uniquely comprehensive reading of given situations, quick perception and thinking, and the ability to improvise under pressure. Bar excelled in this elite unit and received a medal from the IDF Chief of Staff for her contribution to a special covert operation, which had used information that Bar Zohar analysed and consolidated on her own.
Lieutenant Adar Ben Simon
l Adar was killed in battle at the army training base near Kibbutz Zikim while fiercely, and with supreme bravery, defending the soldiers under her command. She fought face-to-face with terrorists who had infiltrated the military base on October 7.
About 50 Hamas terrorists, armed with Kalashnikovs and shoulder-fired missile launchers, attacked the base. Simultaneously, the sky was filled with rockets fired from Gaza. Adar announced the attack on the radio, ordering her soldiers to take up their weapons and deploy around the perimeter fence to stop the terrorists.
Many were still half asleep as it was early on a Saturday morning when the entire base was at rest.
The soldiers immediately jumped out of their beds and started running towards the fence. But the terrorists knew from their own intelligence that they were inexperienced young men who had only joined the army a few weeks before. As a result, many were injured or killed before they could respond. Meanwhile, the terrorists had breached the fence. They drove motorcycles, tractors and vans, and some arrived using paragliders, shooting at the soldiers from the air.
Before their attack, the terrorists had neutralised and destroyed the sophisticated electronic deterrence system that Israel had erected on the Gaza border. They were helped by Gazan farmers who had been permitted by Israel to cultivate their land near the barrier. These “innocent” farmers had photographed the exact location of the sensors on the fence with micro-cameras hidden in their hats.
Adar felt a deep sense of frustration and helplessness as her desperate calls for assistance from the air force and tank troops located at a nearby base went unanswered. So she decided there was no choice but to storm the terrorists.
Before Adar went out to fight the terrorists, she sent a message to her sister Shahaf: “We are being attacked. Dozens of terrorists in front of me. I am going out to fight them. Shema Israel”.
She shouted to her remaining soldiers to stand up and charge after her as she directed massive fire towards the terrorists while simultaneously lobbing grenades at them, approaching them at zero distance – so close that she could see the colour of their eyes. Her actions saved many soldiers – and by encouraging her young and inexperienced soldiers to charge instead of hiding, as such young soldiers might have felt was safest, she motivated them to bravely take on the terrorists themselves, many of whom were killed.
In the post-event debriefing it became clear that by her heroic actions Adar had saved the lives of more than 25 soldiers who would have otherwise been slaughtered by the terrorists due to their lack of combat experience.
Sergeant Ravit Assayag
l On the morning of October 7, most of the residents of Yachini, a religious moshav (a cooperative agricultural community) in southern Israel were in synagogue. While they were praying, around 100 terrorists quietly infiltrated the moshav.
Sergeant Ravit Assayag was on duty that morning in the command room of an operational unit located three kilometres from the moshav. She was among the first to hear of the unfolding horror, picking up panicked reports from nearby Kibbutz Re’im, including desperate calls begging for help from the wounded and people trapped in smoke-filled rooms.
One caller over the radio shouted that all the members of the kibbutz had been murdered and that he was left alone. Ravit decided to act and with three other soldiers they made their way to the moshav in a military jeep. When they arrived they were shocked by the number of terrorists they could see and the massive barrage of rockets soaring overhead – but, above all, by the complete absence of Israeli forces. Ravit noticed some of the terrorists entering a grain warehouse, and quietly told the three other soldiers. They cautiously approached the warehouse, communicating with hand signals to maintain silence in order to surprise the terrorists inside. But they had been spotted and suddenly came under attack from other terrorists outside the grain warehouse. A huge, noisy firefight began.
Ravit kept her calm. Without any backup, while her colleagues fought the terrorists outside the warehouse she stormed it, breaking down its wooden door while firing with highly accurate shots at the terrorists inside. It turned out that these nine terrorists had entered the warehouse to pray (a Muslim custom before committing jihad). The nine were surprised by the sudden onslaught from the lone woman soldier and began to return fire. But the heroic Ravit eliminated four of the terrorists and wounded all but one of the others. This last functioning terrorist had hidden himself behind a bale of hay. Ravit threw a grenade at him and threw herself down on the dusty floor.
Unfortunately, the noise of the exploding grenade attracted the attention of the terrorists nearby, who burst into the smoky warehouse and killed Ravit.
The other three members of her team were also killed in a daring battle against more than 100 terrorists. Nineteen year old Ravit, who had dreamed of a career in music and making people happy, found herself pitched into a battle against human evil. “From the photo you can understand how special Ravit was,” said her close friend Nofer Sarmeli.
“On the one hand, gently strumming her guitar, travelling with it to sing to children in hospitals. And on the other, a fighter who is able to attack terrorists with all her strength and might.”