Despite yesterday being Shabbat, when many people in Israel disconnect their phones, good news has a way of traveling very quickly.

In an operation of combined forces of Shabaq/Shin Bet; Yamam, the police elite counter terrorism unit; Shayetet 13, the Naval commandos; the paratroopers and the IDF armored vehicle units raided two separate residential buildings in Nuzeirat, central Gaza in a surprise mission carried out in broad daylight. The details of this daring operation had been worked out for several weeks requiring exact timing and complex planning. Defense Minister Yoav Gallant reported that it was “one of the most heroic and extraordinary operations I have witnessed over the course of 47 years serving in Israel’s defense.”

Four hostages were rescued alive from Gaza. You might remember seeing footage of the young Noa Argamiani,25,being abducted by a gang of terrorists on a motorcycle into Gaza, the look of abject terror on her face, arms pleading for help. She was being held in a location separate from the other three men who were saved: Shlomi Ziv,40, Andrey Kozlov, 27, and Almog Meir-Jan, age 21. Now they are liberated! Thanks be to G-d and the IDF. They are home.

Helicopters touched down on the beaches under heavy fire, and simultaneously SWAT teams entered the two buildings (family homes in the middle of a busy city, aka refugee camp) separated by hundreds of meters. The two locations were each heavily protected by Hamas in the densely packed neighborhoods. Yet the decision had been made to rescue them from the busy civilian area. Hamas operatives were launching RPGs among the civilians to keep the hostages from being saved. It is horrible to learn that civilians were also killed, but they were being used as literal human shields. One of the IDF elite commandos, Arnon Zamora, was killed in the daring rescue, in what is now known as Operation Arnon. The army managed to eliminate the terrorists without any harm to the four held captive. Several IDF soldiers were lightly to moderately wounded by shrapnel.The entire mission took just under an hour to complete.

Hamas made the choice to locate the captives in very heavily populated civilian areas and worked to blend them in with the civilians. That choice cost many Palestinians their lives. UNWRA, Save the Children, Doctors Without Borders and the Red Crescent all operate in that area. Not once were any of these relief aid workers officially put in touch with the hostages that we yet know of. If they knew anything….or if anyone knew anything about where the hostages were being held, they had a moral duty, if only anonymously to report the information to the IDF or leak it to the internet. How many Palestinians are innocent and how many are complicit?

During the rescue operation, intense gunfire and RPG attacks targeted the elite special ops forces throughout the extraction. The IDF had no choice but to send in ground troops and Air Force backup. The IAF launched several targeted strikes in the area to protect the escapees. According to IDF reports, many Palestinian civilians were killed. Hamas also launched anti-aircraft missiles at Israeli helicopters during that intense time. They were unsuccessful in bringing down any aircraft. However, the escape vehicle was immobilized by heavy fire and ground troops had to transfer the four to a safer vehicle. This was when Cmdr. Zamora was shot.

All four evacuees were helicoptered without needing special assistance and taken to Sheba Medical Center where they were declared to be in good condition. After being medically examined, they were all reunited with their families. But the story does not end here.

Noa arrived home and was reunited with her father. It was his birthday. What a surprise for him, when IDF instructed him to go to Sheba to meet his daughter. Noa was able to fulfill the wish of her dying mother. Her mother has stage four terminal brain cancer, and all she prayed for was to be able to see her daughter before she died. Liora Argamani is from China. She came to study in Israel in 1994, met her husband, Yaakov, converted to Orthodox Judaism, became a citizen and married Yaakov. Liora petitioned the Chinese government to come to the aid of their daughter, but they adamantly refused to assist in any way.

Since her release, we have found out that while captive, Noa Argamani was forbidden to speak any Hebrew, but was taught and could only communicate in Arabic. Noah was held in a cramped closet of an upscale home belonging to an AlJazeera journalist, Abdallah Aljamal, and his father, a doctor at the Shifa Hospital Complex. The father also worked closely with Hamas, the Red Crescent (Red Cross) and UNRWA. The Gaza-based photojournalist often reported from the “March of Return” rioting at the border fence from 2021-2023. Noa told her family that her captors denied her showers, but eventually after months of pleading gave her a bucket of water and some soap. She was only allowed outside to get fresh air once every couple weeks. When she was allowed out, under heavy guard, she was completely covered in a burka so she would not be recognized.

Shlomi Ziv, 40, was working as a security director at the Nova Music Festival on October 7. He was responsible for getting hundreds of young concertgoers out of harm’s way to safety. He was brutally beaten, hogtied and taken hostage to Gaza where he stayed for 245 days. He was brought back home safely to his wife, children and family. It was an amazing reunion.

Almog Meir-Jan’s story is heartbreaking. When he was admitted to Sheba, his mother and grandfather were waiting for him. IDF representatives came to Almog’s father’s apartment to tell him the good news of his son’s rescue and imminent homecoming. There was no answer at the door. His sister, Dina, who had a key, entered the apartment and found Yossi Jan had passed away. His father, Almog’s father, believing he would never see his son again, and not knowing of the rescue operation, had died earlier that morning. They said he died of a broken heart. Dina told reporters that all the stress over repeated hostage release fails contributed to Yossi’s death. He just could not bear it any longer. He died twenty hours prior….

“To all the families of the hostages, we are with you. Please, please, do not break. Try to take care of yourselves too, your own health. Also for them. They will need you when they come back. And you never know. It might be now,” said their family rabbi.

Members of the family spoke with news reporters at a press conference. They said that Almog had kept some sort of special diary or calendar each day while he was being held in captivity. That way he would be able to know certain holidays and mark time. Today is his mother’s birthday…. another great gift.

Little has been written or spoken of the last captive, Andrey Kozlov. All the information I could gather was that he lives in Israel with his brother. His parents from Russia, were notified and landed in Israel (by plane) this morning. The family was reunited with Andrey at Sheba.

Last night our time, many of the major US news networks reported on the entire event. Only they got it completely wrong. They called it a hostage release. I state: There were no negotiations. There was no deal struck with Hamas leaders. There was no hostage release. It was a planned rescue, an intense military operation. There is a huge difference.

This morning, we also heard that President Biden had worked closely with the Israeli government and shared intelligence with them. As far as we know here, or has been reported, there could be nothing further from the truth. However, after taking credit for this, if there is even a shred of truth to the story, is this the intelligence that Biden threatened to hold back if Israel didn’t do what he wanted? Would this have meant the hostages could have been rescued sooner if politics were not played? Just throwing it out there, but we will see, as I have no doubt the matter will be completely exposed-

In the meantime:

WRONG AGAIN!!!!!!

We pray for the safe release of all the other 119 steed held in captivity.