Three Israeli hostages killed during rescue mission, Hamas claims

American citizen held captive in Gaza was among those killed during the rescue of four hostages in Nuseirat, terror group says.

By World Israel News Staff

The Hamas terror organization claimed Sunday that three hostages, including one who holds American citizenship, were killed on Saturday, during an Israeli operation which freed four captives in the central Gaza town of Nuseirat.

Israeli special operations forces attacked multiple Hamas positions in Nuseirat on Saturday, securing the safe return of Noa Argamani, 26, Shlomi Ziv, 40, Andrey Kozlov, 27, and Almog Meir, 21.

One Israeli Border Police commando, Arnon Zamora, was fatally wounded in the operation, while the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry claimed some 210 Gazans were killed during rescue mission.

A day after the raid, Hamas released a video statement claiming that three captives were killed in the Nuseirat operation, alongside heavily edited images purportedly of the three slain hostages. The faces of the three were obscured to prevent identification.

One of the three hostages allegedly killed during the operation was an American citizen, Hamas claimed.

“Your Israeli government killed a number of your captives in order to save the other captives,” text in the video reads.

“After the massacre that your army committed in Nuseirat to rescue four captives – in exchange for them your own army killed three of your own captives in the same attack; one of them holds a U.S.A. citizenship.”

There are currently eight captives with American citizenship still being held by Gaza terrorists, of whom three – including Gadi Haggai, Judith Weinstein Haggi, and Itay Chen – have been confirmed as dead prior to Saturday’s raid, with five others believed to be alive, including Edan Alexander, Sagui Dekel-Chen, Hersh Goldberg-Polin, Omer Neutra, and Keith Siegel.