Israel on Saturday claimed it had rescued from Gaza four of its citizens who Hamas had kidnaped on October 7.
Israeli officials said their forces had rescued four hostages, including 40-year-old Shlomi Ziv, 27-year-old Andrey Kozlov, 25-year-old Noa Argamani, and 21-year-old Almog Meir Jan, from two separate locations in "complex daytime operations" in the Nuseirat refugee camps in Gaza.
The hostages were rescued in "good medical condition."
The four had been kidnapped during the Nova music festival during the October 7 attacks by Hamas, which sparked the nine-month-long conflict. Hamas had taken as many as 251 hostages during that shock infiltration into Israel. At the moment, 116 hostages remain in Gaza, of which Israel claims 41 have died.
However, health officials in Gaza said that the Israeli forces had assaulted the central areas of Gaza, including Deir Al Balah and the Nuseirat camp that, killed at least 15 people.
Others claimed that the missile and helicopter strikes had killed over 100 people, with bodies strewn in the streets.
They further claimed that the assault was launched from both the Israeli side and from the sea and the temporary pier set up by the US with American troops participating in the operation to free the hostages. A witness said that an aid truck pulled into the main Nusseirat camp market which they believed was full of aid and clothes. Instead, around 10 soldiers jumped out of the back of the truck and started firing at the gathered people.
The strike on Nuseirat camp comes hours after Israel had struck another school, which was set up and run by the United Nations Reliefs and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) that killed at least 37 people, including women and children.
Israel, while owning the strike on the school, claimed they had targeted Hamas and other 'terrorists' and that the strike had killed around 17 of their targets.
UNRWA, which ran the school, condemned Israel for targetting them and their facilities, adding that the building was currently housing some 6,000 displaced Gazans.
Moreover, UNRWA said the school had been struck "without prior warning."
Israel has continuously called for disbanding UNRWA and accused the agency and its staff of collaborating with Hamas. UNRWA has vehemently denied the allegations, while evidence presented by Israel of its accusations turned out to be outdated and invalidated.
Israel blacklisted
Earlier, the United Nations added Israel to a blacklist of countries that have failed to protect children or have abused children during an armed conflict. This is the first instance of a democratic country being blacklisted for abuses against children.
Israeli Ambassador to the UN Gilad Erdan termed UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres's decision "outrageous and wrong."
In a staged video of Erdan speaking on the telephone, he says, "I responded to the shameful decision and said that our army is the most moral in the world. The only one being blacklisted is the Secretary-General who incentivizes and encourages terrorism and is motivated by hatred towards Israel."