Elite forces disguised as Arabs, a fierce firefight and an escape via rescue helicopters under air force jets’ cover fire were all part of the operation that lasted under two hours.

By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News

The nitty-gritty details of the IDF’s rescue of four hostages Saturday from deep inside the Gaza Strip included elite forces disguised as Arabs, a fierce firefight, and a hair-raising escape via rescue helicopters, Ynet reported Sunday.

The green light for the mission was flashed by the war cabinet on Thursday night, after the Yamam counter-terrorist unit of the Israeli Police underwent weeks of intensive training, with constant intelligence updates keeping track of the hostages’ whereabouts.

Conditions aligned correctly for the operation Saturday morning at 10 a.m. Two Yamam groups dressed as Arabs made their way carefully to two small apartment buildings in the Nuseirat refugee camp near the Gazan coast.

Noa Argamani was being held in one building, while Almog Meir Jan, Shlomi Ziv and Andrey Kozlov were together in another one 200 meters away.

At 10:50, live video coverage of the area was sent to the Shabak and army command centers, where Shabak head Ronen Bar and IDF Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi were overseeing the operation. Ten minutes later, the two personally gave the command to go ahead.

Between 11-11:10, the two teams rushed the apartments, and Argamani was whisked away quickly.

Trouble developed in the other rescue, as hundreds of Hamas terrorists responded to the Yamam force with heavy machine gun fire and the launching of RPGs over the next few minutes as the Israelis began their escape.

While the Israeli troops transmitted over the radio at 11:15 that “The diamonds are in our hands,” referring to the safe extraction of all four hostages, the rescue of the three male abductees was far from complete.

Chief Inspector Arnon Zamora, a senior Yamam commander, was hit during the firefight and badly injured, and the vehicle the Israelis were using to flee was hit by heavy fire and got stuck.

At 11:25, in a prearranged “Plan B,” navy vessels offshore and air force fighter planes and helicopters overhead started firing missiles at the Hamas forces while hundreds of soldiers from the 7th Armored, Paratroopers, Givati and Kfir Brigades stormed into the battle zone on foot and in tanks and APCs.

Within five minutes, the forces, working smoothly together, opened a safe route for the rescuers, who rushed together with the hostages into two Sikorsky helicopters that landed on the beach.

They were protected by the jets’ cover fire that hit pursuing terrorists who were just a few dozen yards away.

At 11:50, the helicopters took off for Israeli hospitals, where Zamora was unfortunately declared dead from his severe wounds.

The mission, which was originally called Summer Seeds, was immediately renamed Operation Arnon in his honor.

The post ‘The Diamonds Are In Our Hands’ – Details of daring hostage liberation revealed appeared first on World Israel News.

The joint operation including, air force units and ground troops, was launched based on intelligence of terrorist infrastructure in the Nuseirat area. 

By Vered Weiss, World Israel News

The IDF announced Thursday that it has launched a targeted operation against terrorist infrastructure in Gaza both above and below ground.

The focus was on Nuseirat, an area where ground troops have not yet operated during the current war.

On Wednesday night, the Israeli Air Force and 215th Artillery Regiment made preliminary strikes taking out dozens of terror targets including tunnel infrastructure.

The joint operation including air forces and ground troops was enacted based on intelligence of terrorist infrastructure in the Nuseirat area.

During the operation, Nahal troops said a terrorist gunman approached them and was eliminated in an airstrike.

Ground troops also located Hamas rocket launchers during the operation.

In addition, Israel’s navy carried out strikes along the coast to assist the ground and air operations.

On Monday, Israeli Air Force fighter jets attacked three Hamas rocket launchers embedded in the humanitarian zone in western Khan Yunis.

The rocket launchers had been used to fire at southern Israel throughout the war.

No civilians were harmed during the operation, the army said.

The IDF emphasized that it confirmed that noncombatants were evacuated from the area before the precision strikes were conducted.

“This is another example of Hamas’ exploitation of humanitarian compounds and areas for its terrorist activities and its use of the civilian population as a human shield,” the IDF said.

These targeted operations are occurring following the IDF’s withdrawal of most of its troops from southern Gaza, with only one brigade remaining.

According to IDF sources, the IDF’s 98th Division has concluded its mission in Khan Yunis. The division left the Gaza Strip to recuperate and prepare for future operations.

A significant force led by the 162nd Division and the division’s Nahal Brigade continues to operate in the Gaza Strip, and will preserve the IDF’s freedom of action and its ability to conduct precise intelligence-based operations, the sources said.

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Marwan Issa, Muhammed Deif and Yahya Sinwar were the Hamas ‘triumvirate’ who planned the October 7th terror attack.

By Vered Weiss, World Israel News

One of the men who comprised the Hamas “triumvirate” that planned the October 7th massacre has possibly been killed by the IDF while hiding in Gaza.

The IDF struck a target in a building close to the Nusirat refugee camp in central Gaza after receiving intelligence that Marwan Issa was hiding there with his band of terrorists.

It was reported that 5 people were killed in the strike and the IDF is investigating whether one of them was Marwan Issa.

Neither Israeli nor Palestinian officials have confirmed or denied the report as of yet.

Marwan Issa was the deputy of Hamas’s military wing commander, Muhammed Deif, and the two men together with Yahya Sinwar planned the October 7th massacre, according to CNN.

Issa, born in Gaza, joined Hamas at a young age and spent five years in Israeli prison because of his terror activities.

He was also jailed by the Palestinian Authority but was released at the beginning of the Second Intifada.

Marwan Issa was known to the IDF as an exceedingly dangerous terrorist leader whose specialty was planning invasions of Israeli communities, which is one reason he was involved in the planning of the Hamas invasion of Israel on October 7th, 2023.

The three terrorist leaders, Deif, Sinwar, and Issa, reportedly planned the October 7th attack without notifying other Hamas leaders until a few hours before the invasion.

The IDF is still on the trail of Yahya Sinwar, and last month were said to have entered a tunnel in Khan Younis which the terror leader had recently vacated.

The IDF released footage of Yahya Sinwar walking through a tunnel in Gaza along with hostages.

There were rumors previous to the footage that Sinwar had escaped to Egypt through the tunnels using Israeli hostages as human shields.

The post Hamas head who helped plan Oct 7th massacre possibly killed by IDF appeared first on World Israel News.