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Four Israeli hostages including Noa Argamani rescued during ‘complex’ raid in central Gaza
BySocial Links forJon Levine
Published June 8, 2024
Updated June 8, 2024, 9:12 a.m. ET
1.1K Comments
Four Israelis held hostage by Hamas were freed in a daring raid in central Gaza on Saturday.
Noa Argamani, 25, Almog Meir Jan, 21, Andri Kozlov, 27, and Shlomi Ziv, 40, were all rescued after being held by Hamas terrorists for 245 days, the Israel Defense Forces said after the mission.
The hostages were rescued during a “complex” operation at two locations in Nuseirat, central Gaza, the IDF said. They are the first rescued since two others were freed during a raid in February.
Israel says that another 116 hostages of the roughly 250 kidnapped on Oct. 7 remain in Gaza, though a high percentage of them could be dead as a result of deprivation from captivity. Israel has declared at least 40 of those taken during the brutal attacks that day dead.
7IDF soldiers in military uniforms conducting security measures on the Gaza shore in preparation for delivery of humanitarian aidIDF
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Chief Inspector Arnon Zamora, with the police’s counter-terrorism unit, was seriously wounded in the rescue operation, and was brought to a hospital where he died from his injuries, The Times of Israel reported.
Israel had been preparing for weeks to carry out Saturday’s operation, conducted by the IDF, Shin Bet and the Israeli police counter terrorism unit, the spokesman said.
Israeli forces received additional support for the rescue from an American cell, a US official told CNN.
7Noa Argamani, one of Israel’s hostages in Gaza was rescued Saturday.via REUTERS
7Noa Argamani is seen here with her family in a hospital.IDF
7The four hostages were rescued during a Saturday raid by the IDF in Central Gaza.Keshet News12
The news of the hostage rescue came as Israel announced it was “targeting terrorist infrastructure” in Nuseirat, in addition to conducting airstrikes and artillery shelling in nearby al-Zawaideh and Deir al-Balah.
Cheers erupted on the beaches of Tel Aviv after lifeguards announced the successful operation, videos of the moment circulating on X showed.
Video of Argamani embracing her father after being reunited was broadcast by Israel News 12.
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Argamani’s mother has terminal brain cancer and had prayed to see her daughter again.
Israeli President Isaac Herzog and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke with Argamani by phone after the raid.
She and the other three former hostages are in good health and recovering at Tel HaShomer hospital in central Israel, Haaretz reported.
“On behalf of the entire people of Israel, I thank the IDF, the Shin Bet, the Israel Police and the Israel Defense Forces for an impressive and daring rescue operation, and I wish for the speedy return of all our abductees to their families. Israel Lives!,” Herzog said in an X post Saturday.
Freed Israeli hostages are transported to hospital
Footage of Argamani being dragged into Gaza by Hamas terrorists circulated widely after the vicious Oct 7 attack that left 1,200 Israelis dead.
More recently, Argamani had been featured in propaganda videos broadcast by the group.
The Hamas-run Gaza health ministry said at least 50 Palestinians were killed during Saturday’s operations, although it was unclear how many died during the rescue operation.
7Andrey Kozlov, 27, was kidnapped in the deadly October 7 attack by Hamas.REUTERS
7Hostage Almog Meir Jan, 21, was rescued by IDF soldiers.REUTERS
7Shlomi Ziv (on the left in the gray shirt) was rescued during an IDF raid.REUTERS
The Saturday raid was the largest single recovery of hostages captured by Hamas, bringing the total number of rescued up to seven.
In October Israel successfully rescued IDF corporal Ori Megidish. In February, they recovered Fernando Simon Marman and Louis Har.
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Following the news of the hostages’ rescue, Israeli war cabinet member Benny Gantz announced he had postponed a speech where he was expected to announce his party would be leaving Netanyahu’s emergency government.
With Post Wires
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A mysterious Israeli political marketing firm with little online presence is at the heart of a government-led information operation targeting the United States and Canada.
Following the outbreak of war between Israel and Hamas in October, researchers began picking up signs of a coordinated influence campaign focused on promoting pro-Israel narratives about the conflict, disparaging Muslim communities in the United States and Canada, and commenting on the pages of media organizations, politicians and public figures in those two countries.
The bulk of the content and websites linked to by the network appeared to have a common objective: sowing discord and promoting tensions within domestic coalitions in North America that have rallied to the Palestinian cause, including the targeting of audiences in the United States by attempting to link the U.S. civil rights movement to support for Israel and Zionism.
The account and its network spread false claims of Canadian Muslim immigrants and residents imposing Shariah law, manipulated photos and lobbied journalists to give the issue more coverage, often deploying near identical language in their posts.
The network showed signs of obvious inauthenticity, as many of the accounts, pages and websites involved were created around February. United Citizens of Canada’s Instagram page was created in 2019, but has undergone at least five username changes since then, a common tactic used by many sockpuppet accounts to rebrand around emerging or current events.
In a pair of reports last week, Meta and OpenAI traced much of that activity to STOIC, providing additional details about the operation’s presence across Facebook, X, BGOL and YouTube and its use of generative AI.
Mike Dvilyanski, Meta’s head of threat investigations, told reporters that the company suspended or removed 510 Facebook accounts and 32 accounts on Instagram related to the campaign, but that the operation saw relatively little reach on those platforms.
According to Meta’s report, many of the accounts used North American proxy infrastructure to anonymize their activity and pose as locals, including as Jewish students, Black Americans and so-called “concerned citizens.” Those accounts also called for the release of Israeli hostages kidnapped by Hamas, criticized U.S. campus protests against Israeli military operations and attacked the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, the aid organization operating in Gaza that Israeli officials have tried to link to Hamas with little evidence.
In an interview with CyberScoop, Jones said the use of AI in the campaign is reflective of how commercial companies can pitch and sell influence services to governments as cutting-edge technology, even when what they ultimately produce is “fairly generic content.”
“I think it’s very easy for people to sell these products as if they’re some kind of miracle cure for bad publicity, when in reality I think they’re a little crude,” he said.
An influence network run by STOIC shows signs of using AI-generated profile images, often using the same photo for multiple account (Source: OpenAI)
Following the outbreak of war between Israel and Hamas in October, researchers began picking up signs of a coordinated influence campaign focused on promoting pro-Israel narratives about the conflict, disparaging Muslim communities in the United States and Canada, and commenting on the pages of media organizations, politicians and public figures in those two countries.
The bulk of the content and websites linked to by the network appeared to have a common objective: sowing discord and promoting tensions within domestic coalitions in North America that have rallied to the Palestinian cause, including the targeting of audiences in the United States by attempting to link the U.S. civil rights movement to support for Israel and Zionism.
The account and its network spread false claims of Canadian Muslim immigrants and residents imposing Shariah law, manipulated photos and lobbied journalists to give the issue more coverage, often deploying near identical language in their posts.
The network showed signs of obvious inauthenticity, as many of the accounts, pages and websites involved were created around February. United Citizens of Canada’s Instagram page was created in 2019, but has undergone at least five username changes since then, a common tactic used by many sockpuppet accounts to rebrand around emerging or current events.
In a pair of reports last week, Meta and OpenAI traced much of that activity to STOIC, providing additional details about the operation’s presence across Facebook, X, BGOL and YouTube and its use of generative AI.
Mike Dvilyanski, Meta’s head of threat investigations, told reporters that the company suspended or removed 510 Facebook accounts and 32 accounts on Instagram related to the campaign, but that the operation saw relatively little reach on those platforms.
According to Meta’s report, many of the accounts used North American proxy infrastructure to anonymize their activity and pose as locals, including as Jewish students, Black Americans and so-called “concerned citizens.” Those accounts also called for the release of Israeli hostages kidnapped by Hamas, criticized U.S. campus protests against Israeli military operations and attacked the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, the aid organization operating in Gaza that Israeli officials have tried to link to Hamas with little evidence.
In an interview with CyberScoop, Jones said the use of AI in the campaign is reflective of how commercial companies can pitch and sell influence services to governments as cutting-edge technology, even when what they ultimately produce is “fairly generic content.”
“I think it’s very easy for people to sell these products as if they’re some kind of miracle cure for bad publicity, when in reality I think they’re a little crude,” he said.
An influence network run by STOIC shows signs of using AI-generated profile images, often using the same photo for multiple account (Source: OpenAI)
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Moderators, when are you going to do something about these obvious sock puppet accounts. I can spot them a mile away with their one word sentenence and profile pictures that are AI generated flooding the board.
Microsoft has Windows Hello, that could be used to authenticate a real person every time they post a comment. Apple has something like this with their facial recognition. There are also captcha tests. This will slow them down from flooding boards.
Microsoft has Windows Hello, that could be used to authenticate a real person every time they post a comment. Apple has something like this with their facial recognition. There are also captcha tests. This will slow them down from flooding boards.
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Israeli commander Arnon Zamora killed in daring raid in Gaza that brought four hostages home
BySocial Links forJon Levine and
Social Links forMatthew Sedacca
Published June 8, 2024, 2:03 p.m. ET
The lone Israeli soldier killed in the daring raid to rescue four hostages in Gaza was a commander in the country’s élite Counter-Terrorism Unit, officials said.
Arnon Zamora’s unit played a pivotal role in the successful return of hostages Noa Argamani, Almog Meir Jan, Andri Kozlov, and Shlomi Ziv who were being held captive at the Nuseirat refugee camp.
“Behind every rescue mission, are Israeli men and women who risk their lives. We are devastated to share that Chief Inspector Arnon Zamora, commander and tactical operator in the Yamam (National Police Counter-Terrorism Unit), who was critically wounded in the operation to rescue hostages this morning, has succumbed to his wounds,” Israeli’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement Saturday on X, without providing more specifics.
4IDF commander Arnon Zamora was killed during the rescue of four Israeli hostages.Israel Police
4More than 100 hostages are still believed to be held captive in Gaza by Hamas.AFP via Getty Images
Zamora, 36, lived in the village of Sde David, near the Israeli city of Sderot — less than 15 miles from the Gaza border.
He leaves behind a wife Michal, two children and his parents Reuven and Ruthi, Haaretz reported.
Zamora fought on Oct 7 at the Battle of Yad Mordechai, halting the advance of dozens of Hamas terrorists attempting to penetrate the country, officials said.
Other tributes to Zamora poured in Saturday.
““I salute Chief Inspector Arnon Zamora, Commander in the elite Yamam Unit, who fell while leading a daring operation to rescue 4 hostages held by Hamas in Gaza. He lived and fell a hero,” Israeli defense minister Yoav Gallant said in a statement on X.
Ziv’s sister Revital Nasi offered a tearful thank you to the fallen hero’s family for his sacrifice to save her brother.
4Tribunes to Zamora poured in from Israeli government leaders Saturday.AFP via Getty Images
4An injured person was seen being evacuated from an Israeli air force helicopter at Sheba Tel-HaShomer Medical Centre, following a hostage rescue operation.AFP via Getty Images
“We are so sorry and just want to say thank you,” she said, according to the Times of Israel.
Gaza journalist who wrote for Al Jazeera was holding 3 hostages in home with family, Israel says
BySocial Links forRonny Reyes
Published June 9, 2024
Updated June 9, 2024, 2:34 p.m. ET
677 Comments
A Gaza journalist who wrote for Al Jazeera was holding three hostages in his home with his family before he was killed by Israeli commandos during a rescue operation on Saturday, according to the Israeli military.
Abdallah Aljamal, who also worked as a spokesman for the Hamas-run labor ministry, was killed when special forces soldiers stormed his home in central Gaza and rescued hostages Almog Meir Jan, 21, Andri Kozlov, 27, and Shlomi Ziv, 41, the Israeli military said.
Aljamal’s death was originally reported by Rami Abdu, the head of the Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor, who claimed Israel Defense Forces soldiers raided the journalist’s home and killed him and several members of his family.
5Abdallah Aljamal was killed when special forces soldiers stormed his home in central Gaza and rescued three hostages, according to reports.X / @PalestineChron
[IMG alt="Former hostages Almog Meir Jan, Noa Argamani, Andrey Kozlov, and Shlomi Ziv (clockwise from top left) were rescued in a special operation by Israeli forces in the Gaza Strip.
"]https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/former-hostages-almog-meir-jan-83483508_bb06e8.jpg?w=1024[/IMG]5
Former hostages Almog Meir Jan, Noa Argamani, Andrey Kozlov, and Shlomi Ziv (clockwise from top left) were rescued in a special operation by Israeli forces in the Gaza Strip.REUTERS
The IDF acknowledged that Aljamal was keeping the hostages inside his family home, but made no mention of what happened to his relatives.
“This is further proof that the Hamas terrorist organization uses the civilian population as a human shield,” the IDF said in a statement.
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Aljamal had previously written a column for Al Jazeera in 2019. The Qatar-based outlet said Aljamal was never an employee.Before his death, Aljamal was contributing to the Palestine Chronicle news outlet, where he wrote a plethora of stories covering the deaths of Palestinians in Gaza during Israel’s offensive.
[IMG alt="Almog Meir Jan, 22, was seen being greeted by his close relatives at the Sheba Tel-HaShomer Medical Centre, after his rescue from the Gaza Strip.
"]https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/2024-amid-ongoing-conflict-palestinian-83474601.jpg?w=1024[/IMG]5
Almog Meir Jan, 22, was seen being greeted by his close relatives at the Sheba Tel-HaShomer Medical Centre, after his rescue from the Gaza Strip.Israeli Army/AFP via Getty Images
[IMG alt="Andrey Kozlov reacts to being rescued by IDF soldiers in Gaza.
"]https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/andrey-kozlov-released-hostage-reacts-83463287.jpg?w=1024[/IMG]5
Andrey Kozlov reacts to being rescued by IDF soldiers in Gaza.REUTERS
Many of his recent stories focused on the ongoing IDF operation in Nuseirat, where his own home was located, and where Israeli intelligence had figured out he was holding three of the four hostages rescued on Saturday near a refugee camp.
The Palestine Chronicle is a non-profit organization based in Washington State that works to provide daily news to Gaza.
The outlet claims that its team “consists of professional journalists and respected writers and authors who don’t speak on behalf of any political party or champion any specific political agenda.”
[IMG alt="Shlomi Ziv embraces his sister, Revital Nasi, and his cousin, Liat Ariel, after being held hostage for more than 8 months.
"]https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/shlomi-ziv-rescued-hostage-embraces-83472178_50879a.jpg?w=1024[/IMG]5
Shlomi Ziv embraces his sister, Revital Nasi, and his cousin, Liat Ariel, after being held hostage for more than 8 months.via REUTERS
The organization confirmed on Sunday that Aljamal was a contributor reporting on the ground in Gaza, but made no mention that he was holding three hostages.
The outlet did not immediately respond to The Post’s request for comment.
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Many of Aljamal’s recent stories for the Palestinian Chronicle focused on the ongoing IDF operation in Nuseirat, where his own home was located and where Israeli intelligence had figured out he was holding three of the four hostages rescued on Saturday near a refugee camp.
Along with the three men, Israeli forces also rescued Noa Argamani, the 26-year-old Israeli woman who became the terrified face of the Oct. 7 terrorist attack on the Jewish state.
Hamas gambled on the suffering of civilians in Gaza. Netanyahu played right into it
Story by Analysis by Nic Robertson, CNN• 20h • 6 min read
Hamas' leader Yahya Sinwar greets supporters at a rally in May 2021.© John Minchillo/AP
Yahya Sinwar has so far survived eight months of Israeli’s brutal military campaign to kill him. His longevity is a personal victory for the Hamas leader – and increasingly appears to be grim vindication of his decision to seize the initiative in the generational Palestinian struggle with Israel by launching a bloody attack on October 7 that would plunge Gaza’s two million residents into a predictable hell.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and his military responded as expected to Sinwar’s onslaught of terror that killed more than 1,200 people and saw over 220 taken hostage, declaring war and vowing to destroy Hamas.
Predictably too, according to many regional diplomats, Israel’s military campaign is failing to deliver on the dismantling of Hamas, even as the number of Palestinians killed soars past 36,000. While Hamas is people and structures, they argue, it is also an ideology.
Now Sinwar – who speaks fluent Hebrew and has a nuanced knowledge of Israeli politics – believes he still has the war’s initiative, amid high-stakes bargaining with Israel for a ceasefire and hostage deal.
“We have the Israelis right where we want them,” he is said to have told other Hamas leaders, in leaked messages reported by The Wall Street Journal. He appeared to justify the deaths of Palestinian civilians as a “necessary sacrifice” according to the messages.
If this were a conventional war, it would be easy to write Sinwar off as deluded; Israel has the upper hand by far in conventional weapons. But the weapons’ devastating effectiveness is becoming a liability in this asymmetric conflict, and against the backdrop of a tortured history that Sinwar is adroitly weaponizing against Israel.
Because of the enormous civilian casualties and suffering inflicted by Israel in its pursuit of Hamas, Netanyahu now faces a possible arrest warrant for war crimes from the ICC, the world’s top court – just like Sinwar. And the consequences for Netanyahu are far more serious than for Hamas’ leader, because Sinwar is already a renowned terrorist hiding in a tunnel with limited prospects and Netanyahu is a global leader whose world will dramatically shrink if the ICC issues warrants.
Netanyahu dismisses the ICC as anti-Semitic, but that hasn’t neutralized the damage in the court of international opinion. Meanwhile, Sinwar can sit back and cash in on the international anger over Palestinian suffering.
Wind in Sinwar’s sails
Earlier this year, university campuses across the United States and Europe combusted in spontaneous protest over the toll of Israel’s war on civilians in Gaza, where humanitarians warn of a growing hunger crisis.For the first time, a generation of Palestinian were able to witness what they’d always hoped for, a potent political force able to rival what they’ve always perceived as an over loud, over pervasive and over powerful lobby for Israeli interests.
In any other year this may have been irrelevant, but Biden’s back is to the wall in the upcoming US presidential election. He has pledged unwavering support to Israel and continues to send weapons to Israel’s military, but if he stays the course, Biden risks losing vital votes in swing states from a new generation of left-leaning Democrats. He can’t ignore the protesters’ anger about Gaza’s plight.
This puts wind in Sinwar’s political sails. His negotiating team has gotten tougher: first appearing to be on the verge of compromise, then holding out for a permanent ceasefire and complete withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza. He also appears to have brought the reality of a Palestinian state closer too – a political coup following decades of stultifying inertia.
US regional allies, notably Saudi Arabia, have set an “irreversible” path to a two-state solution as part of their price for buy-in to help Gaza rebuild. And while Netanyahu’s far-right ministers predictably say no to Palestinian statehood, some Western partners are showing they’re fed up with Israeli intransigence.
In recent weeks, Ireland, Spain, Norway and Portugal, all frustrated Netanyahu won’t agree a peace deal, have formally recognized Palestinian statehood. The statements mark a remarkable departure from their previously cautious approach to Netanyahu’s belligerence.
Israel has lashed out against the four European nations, but this doesn’t sting Sinwar. He is able to hunker down deep below Gaza and relish the hell he has unleashed above and the repercussions he gambled on.
Hamas’s ideology thrives under the current Israeli attacks, precisely because it was born of, and nurtured on, that very narrative. The war Sinwar started has taken Palestinian suffering to the next level – and Netanyahu has played right into it.
None of this means Sinwar will be winning a popular vote in Gaza during his lifetime, however long or short that may be. But the enormous bloodshed he precipitated has allowed him to tap into global moral outrage. He is now playing the Democratic world against itself, and his tools are the very values that developed nations hold sacrosanct: sanctity of life and fair play.
From a position of apparent weakness, he tries to turn every apparent disadvantage to advantage. On the cusp of Israel’s imminent Rafah operation, he tried to stall it by claiming to accept an Egyptian peace deal that he said Israel had accepted – with his officials briefing details of the mechanics and timings of how hostage releases would work.
As expected, the tactic spun up already febrile Israeli street protest against Netanyahu to a new level. Demonstrators demanded Netanyahu forestall the Rafah operation in favor of a seemingly tantalizingly close hostage release deal.
Who’s calling the shots in Gaza
According to regional diplomats, many of Sinwar’s power plays were entirely predictable. Decades of Israeli failure to address Palestinians’ security and economic concerns outside of Israel’s perceived interests set the table for Sinwar’s challenge, and what he could expect to achieve.Sinwar’s power amid the war seems to be becoming part of the perceived wisdom about Gaza and the war. In Israel on Tuesday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said, “I don’t think anyone other than the Hamas leadership in Gaza actually are the ones who can make decisions.”
Even if Sinwar were inclined to solicit input from Hamas’s well-heeled leadership cadre sitting in the comfort of Doha, and meeting leaders in Iran and Turkey, the likelihood they can bridge the gaps in their thinking through detailed discussion is almost nil. Unfettered communication away from Israel’s prying ears and eyes is impossible.
In the final days before Northern Ireland’s momentous 1998 Good Friday Peace Agreement between the IRA’s political wing Sinn Fein and the British government, I watched the group’s top leaders emerge from the talks locked in intense, semi-silent conspiratorial whispers, slowly pacing adjacent gardens.
But such conversations are likely a luxury Sinwar neither has, nor dares risk taking, from wherever he is hiding in Gaza. And like any leader convinced he is proving his point, he is unlikely to back down now unless his key demands are locked in.
His recent warning that Israel will have to fight for Rafah strongly suggest he is still in the process of bargaining.
Blinken didn’t mention Sinwar by name in his remarks Tuesday, but there was no need. Everyone in the room understood who he meant when he added, “That is what we are waiting on.”
And if messages of pressure to make a deal are reaching Sinwar he will also understand them for another part of what they are – an attempt to turn Gazans desperate for an end to the conflict against him.
As much as Sinwar has put the psychological screws on Israel’s leadership, he can be made vulnerable too. And if past experience is any measure, he will likely gamble that he can play mind games better than Netanyahu.
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It looks like the Arabs dumped their Jews into Israel, while Israel dumped the Arabs into surrounding countries. This is the nonsense they are trying to do in Ukraine which Russia is stopping. The U.S. is absorbing this mess from many countires causing problems here, CBP can only do so much to stop it. A country trying to refugee out people should face genocide charges.
This could be the black community in some country claiming political asylum, ass out if we don't check this nonsense. Many people think you go to a death camp after taking a train ride when it will be mass starvation and deprivation of affordable housing that will cause you to flee.