9.35 The Amazing Gaza Rescue

On October 7, Hamas invaded Israel from Gaza, killed 1200 people and took 250 hostage.  Rescuing hostages is very difficult. Hamas expects Israelis to try and rescue them and so hides them and has terrorists nearbye in case the Israelis come.  You can't just send in troops, by the time they battle Hamas forces and make it to where the hostages are located the hostages will either have been rapidly moved to another location via Hamas tunnels or have been killed.  In addition the firefight with Hamas just to get to the hostages is likely to kill a lot of Arab civilians as well as a lot of your own soldiers.

Hugh Fitzgerald wrote:

The Shin Bet, Mossad, and the IDF all have in their ranks men, and women, too, who speak perfect Arabic, and who are able to mimic, too, the pronunciation of Gazans. What’s more, they are masters of disguise. They not only sound, but look like Arabs. They dress as Arabs. Some have deliberately acquired zebibahs in the middle of their foreheads. They know which phrases about Allah to intersperse in their conversation. They can properly curse the Yahudim (Jews). 

Gianluca Pachianni wrote for The Times of Israel that:

The disguised forces arrived in a white car carrying mattresses on top, and the women were dressed in the clothes “that women are wearing here in the war,” Asharq reports. Locals asked the newcomers where they came from, and the latter answered that they were escaping the IDF operation in Rafah, and had rented a place in the area around the market in Nuseirat, pointing at the building where Noa Argamani was being held. The three male hostages (Andrey Kozlov, Shlomi Ziv and Almog Meir Jan) were detained in another building 200 meters away. The unit then reportedly split into two groups, each heading towards one of the two buildings, in preparation for the operation.
 

Liora Argamani, the mother of Noa Argamani had brain cancer.  One of Noa's rescuers told the Jerusalem Post that  "Noa's first question was whether her mother was still alive. I told her yes. She looked right and left at us and asked again if we were sure. We told her yes, 'that's why we came, to bring you back to your mother.'"  When the Israelis broke into the apartment where Noa Argamani was being held they encountered three terrorists which they quickly killed.  The tremendous noise and a scream she heard were terrifying.  She was barefoot so the rescuers carried her out.  The commander of her rescue reassured her that everything would be OK.  Of course he didn't know that, in fact he knew the situation was very dangerous for everyone including himself. Everything was going according to plan until the escape convoy that was under fire, got stuck.  A rescuer said that "We had to wait for the army to arrive and assist us exiting. The moment of the reunion and transfer to the helicopters took about half an hour."  Half an hour is a long time when you're under fire.  All the rescuers of Noa got out alive but there were a lot more terrorists waiting for the Israelis who went to rescue the male hostages.  Those terrorists shot and killed Arnon Zamora, who was leading that rescue team.

 

You can see the soldiers finding and rescuing the hostages in the video below.

 

Thanks to the Israeli rescuers, Noa was able to be with her mother Liora Argamani, during her final days of life.  At Liora's funeral Noa said:

"My mother, the best friend I ever had, the most beautiful and strongest person I have ever known in my life. I am standing here today and I still cannot digest. Against all odds I am here. Thank you. I am glad that I got to see you at least one more time. Thank you for the 26 years that I had the privilege of being by your side.  I learned a lot from you. You travelled around the world with me and made me a strong human being. The tools you gave me are tools I could not obtain anywhere else. Every time it was difficult you pushed me forward. I promise you that I will continue to follow your path. I promise you that I will take care of dad. I promise you that I will be just as strong as you are. Mom, you will always be with me, no matter where I go and who I meet. Like you taught me when I was a little girl – ‘I love you to the sky and back’.

Here is a video of Noa Argamani thanking the IDF for rescuing her and thanking the people who took care of her family while she was held hostage.

 

Click Here to Take Quiz

 

In a normal sane world one would expect the press outside Israel to praise Israel and praise the men who risked their lives to save the hostages and praise those men for killing terrorists.  However, a constant war of propaganda against Israel has turned much of the world to turn against Israel and has caused many to criticize Israel with the excuse that according to Hamas hundreds of Palestinians were killed during the rescue.  One would think that a) the press would realize by now that they can't trust Hamas's numbers, that b) they would realize that the numbers they are given does not distinguish between the number of Hamas members killed and civilians when it reports deaths, and  c) that the press would blame the deaths on the Muslims who abducted the hostages in the first place and d) that the press would blame Hamas for wildly opening fire on the rescuers and hitting any civilians nearby  We don't live in a normal sane world  instead we live in a world that is turning against Israel.  The next lesson is about the propaganda war that is turning people against Israel.

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