Four Israeli hostages were rescued from the Gaza Strip on Shabbos morning in a heroic operation carried out by IDF special forces, Border Police officers and Shin Bet operatives.
The hostages were Almog Meir Jan, 21, Noa Argamani, 25, Andrez Kozolov, 27, and Shlomi Ziv, 40. They all were abducted from the Nova music festival on October 7th.
They were rescued from two separate areas in Nuseirat in the central Gaza Strip.
The hostages were transferred to Sheba Hospital in Tel Hashomer, where they were reunited with their families. Baruch Hashem, they are all in good medical condition.
Tragically, Border Police commander Arnon Zemora, H’yd, was seriously injured in the operation and his death was later pronounced at the hospital. Zamora, z’l, 36, left behind a wife and two children.
IDF spokesperson Daniel Hagari said in a special statement: “They are all healthy, their medical condition is normal, and they are in the hospital where they will undergo medical tests and be reunited with their families. The four were rescued in a daring daylight rescue operation, during which IDF and Shin Bet fighters raided the heart of the Gaza Strip and rescued them under fire.”
The video below shows Noa Argamani reuniting with her father in the helicopter. Her mother is critically ill with cancer and is hospitalized in Ichilov Hospital in Tel Aviv.
In the video below, President Herzog speaks with Noa Argamani:
The videos below show Noa Argamani being evacuated from the Strip:
The IDF’s video of the rescue:
Israelis celebrate:
(YWN’s Jerusalem desk is keeping you updated after tzeis ha’Shabbos in Israel)
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15 Responses
What a simcha!!!! But Just remember all those phone calls and the videos taken were all done by yiden on shabbos…………..
There may even be a halachic issue with benefitting from pictures and videos taken by a jew on shabbos
wow bh!
Last i checked videos taken on shabbos are assur to watch. but maybe im mistaken??
So sad to see how all these mechallei shabbos dont see the yad hashem in anything truly truly saddening.
Youn guys are so stupid, instead of being happy you are hating on other yidden
This was a pikuach Nefesh situation
Phone calls were allowed to be made etc soldiers were allowed to fly the helicopters. Doctors were allowed to treat the patients. Parents were allowed to be called down…
Frishe Kigel and Habachur hachasuv
The two of you will share the prize for the dumbest posts of the week. Rather than recognizing the bravery and mesiras nefesh of the security forces who risked their lives to save these hostages, you are fixated on stupidity. Kol hakovod to those who participated in this operation, thank you YWN for sharing these incredible photos and videos and may the neshama of the one officer who died of his injuries during the rescue have an aliyah.
frishe is correct. What was necessary for pikuach nefesh, should’ve been done. But these pictures and videos were taken when the hostages were already out of danger, so they were certainly a violation of shabbos, and we shouldn’t benefit from them.
Halacha doesn’t stop just because we are happy about something.
What do you expect from people living lives of such unresolvable contradictions?
Claiming to be Religious & a Zionist is as ridiculous as claiming to be a Yeshiva & a University.
What next, a Catholic Chasidish Shteibel?
Or perhaps an upscale Kosher restaurant that pairs the finest steaks with the best aged cheeses?
Or maybe a “Frum” boys school that also teaches Kefira like English, Math, Science & History?
Trying to reconcile two irreconcilable subjects never works & usually ends in disaster.
No one is hating anyone! There’s just a technical problem. It’s asur to benefit from melacha that was done by a jew on shabbos. They were allowed to be rescued and treated and their parents were allowed to have been contacted (preferably by a non-Jew). Who allowed pictures and videos to be taken? That’s complete chillul shabbos and that’s where there is an issue.
Keeping shabbos is not “a nice thing to do”, something that you can take upon yourself. It is absolutely mandatory and carries a death penalty for meaningful violation.
I’m no posek and I’m definitely not saying that you are allowed to take these pictures but it’s also not so simple that they aren’t. These type of things, if possible, are usually photo documented to study for military operations . The pictures are probably coming from body cameras that the soldiers were anyway wearing. Rav Ezreil Aurbach (who as a member of the Moetzes of Peleg is no left winger) told soldiers fighting in Gaza this war that aside from the tremendous mitzvah they are doing by being there they should follow the psak of his father (Rav Shlomo Zalman Aurbach) that a soldier in combat is in constant state of Pikuach Nefesh every second . Therefore they should not be making chesbonos of how to mitigate chilul shabbos or is this really necessary to do on Shabbos (as printed in the Yated earlier this winter) If you are a combat soldier in Gaza I repeat what Rav Ezreil Aurbach said about the mitzva but ask own your shaalos!
Laniyas dati I was wondering if perhaps as a nation we have to stop focusing and obsessing in regards to the hostages. I wonder if in the long term this obsession is bderech hateva causing much more death then life.
Baruch Hashem they’re back – and a big thank you as well to those Shluchim of HKB”H in the IDF and the Israeli police who were Moser Nefesh in this rescue. May the family of Arnon Zamora HY”D have a nechama and know no more tza’ar, and may he have a place in the Olam haEmes benefitting his true Mesiras Nefesh on behalf of his fellow Jews.
As to using the pictures/videos created through Chilul Shabbos – I’m not sure as to how the Klal in Halacha of k’dei sheya’asu applies in a situation where it would not have been possible to create what was created b’issur after Shabbos – such as photos of an event that happened on Shabbos. It is an interesting and valid Halachic discussion – but should not take away from the gratitude we feel for the event itself.
an Israeli Yid
Stevenn,
Laniyas dati I was wondering if perhaps your loved one was a hostage for eight months among these Hamas monsters, that you would stop focusing and obsessing about them even for a second. How you would feel reading the cruel words you posted?
If you can “wonder” since it’s not your relative, perhaps you are lacking in the basic “rachmanim” litmus test of a Jew, which raises all kinds of serious questions about you.
its just very funny that on october 7th if you recall many people were speared due to shmiras shabbos (at least that is what the rabbanim were saying) and now when they bh rescue hostages they are mechallel the shabbos together with them! hafleh vafeleh!!