Four hostages kidnapped by Hamas have been reunited with their families, after being rescued in a raid that Palestinian officials say killed dozens of people.
Noa Argamani, 26, Almog Meir Jan, 22, Andrei Kozlov, 27, and Shlomi Ziv, 41, were freed on Saturday, eight months since being kidnapped from the Nova music festival on 7 October.
Israeli forces, backed by air strikes, fought intense gun battles with Hamas in the Nuseirat area, in what the Israel Defense Forces called a “high-risk, complex mission”.
Palestinian officials say scores of people were killed in the operation.
Two hospitals in Gaza, al-Aqsa hospital and al-Awda hospital, said they had counted 70 bodies between them, while Hamas’s government media office said at least 210 people had been killed in Israeli strikes in and around the al-Nuseirat refugee camp.
Israel estimated there were fewer than 100 casualties, IDF spokesman Daniel Hagari said.
Images from the area show intense bombardment, and hospitals there said they were overwhelmed with casualties, including children, and that they were unable to treat everyone. Other photos show people mourning the dead.
