What we know about the raid that rescued 4 Israeli hostages from Gaza

The complex Deep attack on a refugee camp built in central Gaza to rescue four Hamas hostages Saturday was the biggest rescue operation since Hamas and other militants stormed the border and attacked Israel, triggering the ongoing war.

Dozens of hostages are believed to be held in densely populated areas or within Hamas’ labyrinth of tunnels, making such operations extremely complex and risky.

The Israeli attack on the Nuseirat camp, which dates back to the 1948 Arab-Israeli war, on Saturday led to the rescue of 26-year-old Noa Argamani, 22-year-old Almong Meir Jan, 27-year-old Andrey Kozlov and Shlomi Ziv, from 41 years old, who were all kidnapped from New Music Festival on October 7th.

According to the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry, at least 274 Palestinians were killed and hundreds of others injured in the attack. The Israeli military said its forces came under heavy fire during the complex daytime operation and that “fewer than 100” Palestinians were killed, although it was not clear how many of them were militants or civilians.

A timeline of the attack

Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, a spokesman for the Israel Defense Forces, told reporters on Saturday that the military has been planning the operation for several weeks, building accurate models of the apartment buildings to repeatedly train.

The hostages, he said, were being held in two apartments about 200 meters apart. They were shot at simultaneously in broad daylight because there was a “great risk of each other killing hostages,” Hagari said.

According to Hagari, the operation in the building where they found Argamani went well, while in the second building with the three male hostages, they were met with crossfire from guards – including armed men who fired rocket grenades from inside the neighborhood. He said the military responded with heavy force, including from aircraft, to extract rescue teams and freed hostages.

An Israeli police special forces officer was seriously injured and later died in this hospital.

Dr. Itai Pessach, a doctor at Sheba Hospital where the freed captives were being treated, said none of them had serious physical injuries but that it would likely be days before they could be discharged.

“Many of them have lost friends and family. Things have happened in the eight months that they were not here. So (medical staff) have been helping them rebuild the infrastructure of their lives,” he told reporters.

Who are the hostages

Argamani, Meir Jan, Kozlov and Ziv they were all kidnapped at the Nova music festival. They were recovered after the IDF announced it was attacking “terrorist infrastructure” in central Gaza.

Argamani has emerged as an icon of the agonizing hostage crisis that is still far from over. She appeared in a series of videos that captured the painful trajectory of her situation.

Meir Jan, from a small town near Tel Aviv, had finished his military service three months before the music festival attack, according to the Times of Israel. A forum created by the hostages’ families said he was expected to start working at a technology company the day after the attack.

Kozlov worked as a security guard at the festival. He had immigrated to Israel from Russia alone a year and a half earlier, and his mother came to the country after October 7, Israeli media reported.

Ziv is from a farming community in northern Israel and worked as a receptionist and went to the music festival with two friends who were killed, the Times of Israel reported.

US provided intelligence support

The United States, one of Israel’s biggest allies, provided support to Israeli forces, two US officials confirmed to CBS News on Saturday. The US military did not participate in the operation, a US official said.

The U.S. role came primarily in the form of intelligence support, two U.S. officials confirmed to CBS News, but declined to share sensitive details about the operation.

A video circulating online on Saturday showed an IDF helicopter taking off from the beach with the temporary floating pier built by the USA as a backdrop. Two US officials told CBS News that the US pier was not used in the IDF operation. It is offshore to help deliver humanitarian aid. A US official explained that the helicopter landed south of the facility, on a beach, but not within the isolated pier area.

“The pier facilities were not used in today’s hostage rescue operation in Gaza. An area south of the facility was used to safely return the hostages to Israel,” a US official said. “Any statement to the contrary is false. The temporary pier on the coast of Gaza was created for a single purpose: to help bring the most urgently needed vital assistance to Gaza.”

Hagari, the IDF spokesman, also said the rumor that Israeli forces came from the temporary dock was “completely false.”

“We know that it is a true ally that helps us against Hamas, against terrorists and this happens 24 hours a day,” he said of US support during the operation.

Horror scenes at Gaza hospital

In Gaza, doctors described to the Associated Press scenes of chaos after Saturday’s attack, as the wounded overwhelmed hospitals already struggling to treat those injured from days of heavy Israeli attacks on the area.

“We’ve had a range of war injuries, traumatic injuries, from amputations to eviscerations, through trauma, to TBIs (traumatic brain injuries), fractures and, of course, major burns,” said Karin Huster of Doctors Without Borders, a charity international charity working at Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Hospital, told the AP.

“Children completely gray or white from the shock, burned, screaming for their parents. Many of them are not screaming because they are in shock.”

The murder of so many Palestinians, including women and children, in an attack showed the high cost of such operations, in addition to the already growing number of fatalities the 8 month war.

Hostages still missing

Hamas kidnapped 250 hostages during the October 7 attack. About half were released in a week-long ceasefire in November. Around 120 hostages remain, with 43 presumed dead. Survivors include about 15 women, two children under the age of 5 and two men in their 80s.

Saturday’s operation brought the total number of hostages rescued to seven, including one who was freed shortly after the October attack. Israeli troops recovered the bodies of at least 16 other people, according to the government.

World Food Program worker injured

United Nations World Food Program Executive Director Cindy McCain told “Face the Nation” on Sunday morning that one of her workers was among those injured in the attack.

Haley Ott, Margaret Brennan, David Martin, Clarie Day, Olivia Gazis and Ed O’Keefe contributed to this report.