How Israeli Gaza raid freed 4 hostages, killed at least 274 Palestinians
- Here’s how Saturday’s military operation in Gaza unfolded, according to the Israeli military and Palestinian witnesses
They arrived in the middle of the day, when the squat concrete buildings of the Nuseirat refugee camp are stifling and the narrow streets outside are filled with people. No one suspected a thing until the shots rang out.
The Israeli raid caught everyone off guard, from the Hamas militants guarding four hostages in two different buildings to the thousands of civilians who soon found themselves running for their lives through a blistering crossfire.
For Israel, it was the most successful operation of the eight-month war, bringing nationwide elation and removing some of the stain from the army’s unprecedented collapse on October 7.
For Palestinians, it was a day of horror that sent hundreds of dead and wounded flooding into already beleaguered hospitals.