Israelis dressed, lived as locals to rescue hostages

Men pray by the bodies of victims killed during Israeli bombardment at the Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza City. Pic/AFP

Ever since May 12, the day Israel received intelligence about the location of four hostages in the Nuseirat refugee camp area in the Gaza Strip, even every branch of Israeli intelligence was focused on the area. 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.

In order to verify information received and to prepare the grounds 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.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.

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.

On Friday morning, June 6, the Israeli soldiers eliminated the terrorists guarding Noa Argamani, and within six minutes had rescued her unharmed from the apartment. The rescue of the other three hostages was an unexpected massive gunbattle with 30 Hamas terrorists hiding in the third floor flat. After a long face-to-face battle, the Israelis managed to eliminate all the terrorists in the apartment.

June 6
Day the hostage rescue drama took place

This story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed, agencies. Mid-day accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability, trustworthiness, reliability and data of the text. Mid-day management/mid-day.com reserves the sole right to alter, delete or remove (without notice) the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever