Israel kills hundreds of Palestinian women and children to rescue four hostages. 

Saturday, Shin Bet (Israel’s security agency) and the IDF (Israel Defense Forces) rescued four hostages, all young, all relatively healthy.  At least three other  hostages were killed in the rescue effort.  The four rescued people had been at the Nova music festival on the night of 7 Oct.

The rescue was at the cost of more than 274 Palestinians’ lives, and more than 698 Palestinians seriously injured.  Most of the casualties were women and children.    

One Israeli life for 68 murdered Palestinians

That’s just about right: One Jewish Israeli’s life is worth at least 68 Palestinians’ lives– or 1 Israeli’s life for 243 Palestinians’ lives –if we include the Palestinians murdered and injured when Israel attacked Nuseirat refugee camp on Saturday.

“We had the gamut of war wounds, trauma wounds, from amputations to eviscerations to trauma, to TBIs (traumatic brain injuries), fractures and, obviously, big burns,” said Karin Huster of Doctors Without Borders (MSF) who is working in Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital. “Kids completely gray or white from the shock, burnt, screaming for their parents. Many of them are not screaming because they are in shock.”

Israeli helicopter gunships fired on civilians in the heart of Nuseirat refugee camp as well as in Maghazi refugee camp near Deir al-Balah in central Gaza.   Israel had told the hospital to evacuate.  According to Al Jazeera journalist Maram Humaid, by midmorning Saturday,

“The artillery bombardment escalated, warplanes filled the skies, and the air strikes shook our home; they were shooting at homes in Deir el-Balah, around us. The roar of tanks firing was accompanied by relentless shelling, and helicopters, quadcopters and drones hovering.”

The IDF “operated creatively & bravely”

Naturally, Israel’s Prime MinisterNetanyahu crowed about the rescue as “an operation that will be written in history.” He said that the IDF “operated creatively and bravely.”  His defence minister, Yoav Gallant, noted  it was “one of the most heroic and extraordinary operations” he had seen in his 47 years with the Israeli military.    

Of course it was. IDF spokesman Daniel Hagari explained that the mission was based on “precise” intelligence [where have we heard that before?] and the Israeli hostages were freed from two separate apartment buildings in Nuseirat.  Just to gild the lily, Gallant told ABC news it was a rescue “daring in nature, planned brilliantly and executed in an extraordinary fashion.” The four Israelis who were freed on Saturday added up to more than double the three that the IDF has rescued during the eight months since the start of Israel’s war on Gaza.

Israeli commandos hide in a humanitarian aid truck

But not so fast.  The Cradle reported that the IDF and the Israeli police special counterterrorist unit – called Yamam– infiltrated the Nuseirat camp hidden in a humanitarian aid truck which drove from the US-built pier.  The Israeli commandos used the truck to rescue four captives, though the Israelis inadvertently killed three other hostages.  The Cradle spoke to at least one eyewitness who reported that the US had to have been in some way involved in the manoeuvre.   

Nuseirat refugee camp was a “complete bloodbath”, looked “like a slaughterhouse”

Dr Tanya Haj-Hassan, paediatric intensive care doctor, MSF

The two hospitals in central Gaza received the hundreds of dead who were left lying on the streets, killed by Israeli airstrikes and explosions on Saturday.  Dr Tanya Haj-Hassan, a paediatric intensive care doctor with Doctors Without Borders (MSF), described Al-Aqsa Hospital as a “complete bloodbath”.  She added that it looked “like a slaughterhouse. There are many people missing extremities. It was so horrific”.  

There was little medicine, almost no food, and the hospital generator no longer functioned due to a lack of fuel.  Most injured patients, women and children, were treated on the floor, in appalling conditions. It was much the same at the neighbouring al-Awda Hospital.   

Despite the rescue, many Israelis remain bitter and distrustful of Netanyahu’s government.  For one thing, Netanyahu has yet to meet with or even write a sympathy letter to many of the relatives of hostages held captive for the past eight months.   Nor did he phone the families of the four men hostages who were declared dead a week ago.  Netanyahu knew he risked public shaming for not having rescued them. 

But as Ha’aretz journalist Anshel Pfeffer noted, Netanyu’s refusal to meet or contact hostages relatives is “… because Netanyahu only takes responsibility for success stories.” 

It’s hard to get the numbers exactly right, but in late October 2023, four women hostages were released by Hamas in a humanitarian gesture. 

In November 2023, 105 hostages (81 Israelis and 24 foreign nationals) were released during a week-long ceasefire. Their release was in exchange for Israel freeing 240 Palestinians from its prisons.  

In February 2024, Israel rescued two elderly men who were hostages in Rafah.  That raid killed 67 Palestinians including women and children.  Again, that works out to 1 Israeli life for the lives of 32 Palestinian women and children killed.  

In May 2024, Israel recovered six hostages’ bodies, including two women.  

Of the remaining hostages, Israel has declared 43 dead. 

Over 100 hostages are thought to remain in Gaza including 15 women, two children under age 5 years and two men in their 80s. 

Clearly, Netanyahu doesn’t plan to stop the war to free the hostages

What is clear from Saturday’s rescue is a statement early Saturday by Hamas’ Bassem Naim:

“The horrific massacre committed today by Netanyahu and his fascist government against the Palestinian people in Gaza, which led to slaughter of 210 and more than 400 wounded so far — under the pretext of liberating those detained by the resistance — confirms what the resistance has said repeatedly: that Netanyahu doesn’t plan to reach an agreement to stop the war and free the captured Israelis peacefully,” said Hamas senior official Bassem Naim, now based in Lebanon. 

What is also clear is that Benny Gantz, a centrist member of Israel’s 3-man War Cabinet threatened to resign from Netanyahu’s coalition government if it didn’t take up a new plan to free the hostages and curtail the war.  Gantz also called for a general election; he said Israel deserves “a real victory” that “puts the release of hostages above political survival.”   He resigned Sunday.  

Israel is now on the “List of Shame”

Last week’s ray of sunshine was the inclusion of Israel on the annual report called the  “List of Shame” released on Friday by the UN Secretary-General’s office.  The report singled out Israel for violations against children in an armed conflict.  It turns out that Israel is now the only “democracy” that is on the list— which includes Russia (because of the war with Ukraine), Yemen, Afghanistan and Iraq.  The list also names Boko Haram, al-Qaeda, and the Islamic State as being in violation – since when were these countries? 

Just to take the sting away from Israel, the list also includes Hamas– which today seems laughable. And just to be extra nice to Israel, Secretary-General Antonio  Gutteres’ office phoned Gilad Erdan, Israel’s ambassador to the UN, to kindly give him a head’s up before the list was released.  Erdan and Israel’s foreign minister, Israel Katz, were furious.  Both repeated the familiar trope that  Israel had “the most moral army in the world” and by putting Israel on the List of Shame it would “only aid the terrorists and reward Hamas.”  

“… the UN added itself to the black list of history when it joined those who support the Hamas murderers. The IDF is the most moral army in the world; no delusional UN decision will change that.”

Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu

In his  typical fashion, Netanyahu added, “Today the UN added itself to the black list of history when it joined those who support the Hamas murderers. The IDF is the most moral army in the world; no delusional UN decision will change that.”

This will be cold comfort to the parents and families of more than 15,000 children killed directly by Israel’s bombs and missiles, child victims trapped in collapsed buildings, plus those who have died of starvation and illness in the last eight months.  

Featured image at the top: Palestinians look at the aftermath of the Israeli bombing in Nuseirat refugee camp, Gaza Strip, Saturday, June 8, 2024. (credit: Jehad Alshrafi /AP)