The hostage crisis in Gaza remains fluid, and by God’s grace there will be happier news in the days to come. But the latest development not only brought great sorrow, it demonstrated just how dire is the hostages’ situation.
Torture, rape, psychological abuse and forced malnutrition–all of this and more we long assumed the hostages were enduring. But so long as they could still be rescued, hope prevailed, just barely.
Last week, Hamas sought to crush that hope entirely by executing six hostages the moment it heard Israeli soldiers getting too close. The message was clear. There would be no more successful hostage rescues.
Now, Hamas is almost certainly underestimating the skill of Israel’s special forces. Still, if its operatives have orders to execute any remaining hostages the moment they spot or hear IDF soldiers, the job has become much more difficult.
This is the situation as of September 3, 2024:
Five Israelis were freed prior to the first hostage deal with Hamas:
- October 20, 2023: Judith and Natalie Raanan were released and transferred to the Gaza Strip border.
- October 23, 2023: Nurit Cooper and Yocheved Lifshitz were released and transferred to the Egyptian side of the Rafah crossing.
- October 30, 2023: Private Ori Megidish was rescued during a ground operation in the Gaza Strip.
In the last week of November, 2023, 81 Israelis and 24 foreign nationals were released during the hostage deal with Hamas. Most of the Israelis freed were elderly women, mothers and children. Younger women and nearly all men were deemed by Hamas to be “soldiers” and thus saved for more substantial trades.
The bodies of 34 hostages murdered by Hamas have been retrieved by Israeli forces. Many were wounded during the events of Oct. 7 and died of their injuries in captivity. Others were tortured to death, and some were summarily executed.
Three hostages were mistakenly killed by Israeli forces on December 15, 2023 after being misidentified after they had escaped their captors:
- Alon Shamriz
- Yotam Haim
- Samer Talalka
All three were abducted alive and in good health on Oct. 7, 2023. They are believed to have escaped their captors several days before their deaths. Hiding out in an abandoned building, they hung a sheet with the message “SOS – Three Hostages”. An IDF unit redeployed to the area erroneously believed the message to be a trap, and shot the three hostages as they approached the soldiers’ position.
Specific military operations
The following is a list of military operations launched with the intent of rescuing live hostages or retrieving the bodies of the slain, based on direct intelligence.
October 30, 2023: “Operation First Light” gave a jolt of hope to Israel when Private Ori Megidish, was reunited with her family. Megidish was taken from Nahal Oz Base by Hamas terrorists on Oct. 7.
December 12, 2023: The bodies of Eden Zechariah and Chief Warrant Officer Ziv Dado were recovered.
December 15, 2023: The bodies of Elia Toledano, Corporal Nick Baizer and Sergeant Ron Sherman were recovered. The operation took place during heavy fighting in the Shejaiya neighborhood of Gaza City, and it was in the midst of this chaos that Israeli soldiers misidentified and killed Alon Shamriz, Yotam Haim and Samer Talalka.
February 12, 2024: In “Operation Golden Hand” security forces rescued Louis Har and Fernando Marman in a lighting incursion on the outskirts of Rafah.
May 17, 2024: The bodies of hostages Yitzhak Glanter, Shani Louk, Amit Buskila and Ron Benjamin were recovered. All four were believed to have died either during or shortly after their brutal abduction.
May 24, 2024: The bodies of Hanan Yablonka, Michel Nisenbaum and Orion Hernandez were recovered. All three were believed to have died during or shortly after their brutal abduction on Oct. 7.
June 8, 2024: In “Operation Arnon” (named after Commander Arnon Zamora, who fell in the operation), Israeli forces successfully rescued Noa Argamani, Almog Meir, Andrei Kozlov and Shlomi Ziv in a complex and daring raid in enemy-held territory in central Gaza.
July 25, 2024: The bodies of Mia Goren, Staff Sergeant (Res.) Oren Goldin, Staff Sergeant Tomer Achimas, Sergeant Kirill Brodsky and Master Sergeant (Res.) Ravid Aryeh Katz were recoverd. Mia Goren was murdered in captivity, while the others all fell in battle during the Oct. 7 invasion and their bodies were taken to Gaza.
August 19, 2024: The bodies of Yagev Buchshtab, Alexander Dancyg, Avraham Mondor, Yoram Metzger, Nadav Popplewell and Haim Perry were recovered.
August 27, 2024: Bedouin hostage Qaid Farhan Alkadi was rescued after apparently being abandoned by his captors.
August 28, 2024: The body of a soldier killed on Oct. 7 and taken by Hamas to Gaza was retrieved. At the family’s request, the soldier’s identity was not revealed.
August 31, 2024: The bodies of Hersh Goldberg-Polin, Eden Yerushalmi, Almog Sarusi, Alexander Lobanov, Carmel Gat and Master Sgt. Ori Danino were retrieved from a tunnel in southern Gaza. They were executed by Hamas about 48 hours before Israeli soldiers reached them.
