How Israel Pulled Off a High-Risk Hostage Rescue [View all]
Source: The Wall Street Journal
TEL AVIV—The searing midday sun afforded the Israeli commandos the element of surprise.
The daylight raid was an unusual tactic, and risky. The fear, Israeli military officials said, was that Hamas guards would kill the four hostages as soon as they detected the specialist Israeli counterterrorism teams approaching. But if they could pull it off, it would give Israel a big psychological boost in a war that has been turning into a quagmire while steadily isolating the country from the rest of the world.
At 11:25 a.m. local time on Saturday, the Israeli military’s Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi was watching the situation from a command center of the Shin Bet security agency and gave the order to go.
The Israeli teams overwhelmed the captors hunkered down in two apartment blocks in Nuseirat, in the center of the Gaza Strip, Israel’s military later said. The teams came under fire as they left the buildings, leading to a street battle before the soldiers extracted the four hostages via helicopters on the beach.
One Israeli officer was fatally wounded. The Israeli military said about 100 Palestinians were killed or wounded, including Hamas militants and civilians caught in the crossfire.
For Palestinian civilians sheltering from the eight-month war in Gaza, it was another day of airstrikes, death and mourning. Residents in Nuseirat described it as one of the worst days of the war, saying they didn’t know what was happening as bombs rained down. Some also voiced anger at Hamas for holding hostages in residential buildings, endangering the whole area.
read more at link
Read more: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/how-israel-pulled-off-a-high-risk-hostage-rescue/ar-BB1nS5k3
"Some also voiced anger at Hamas for holding hostages in residential buildings, endangering the whole area."
= new reply since forum marked as read