Operation Arnon – the Rundown
This was the most daring operation carried out by the IDF since the start of the war, with extremely complex and high-risk details.
The four hostages were kept in civilian apartments near a busy market in the heart of Nuseirat—a city with a population of 30,000. Noa Argamani was kept in one building, and Almog Meir, Andrey Kozlov, and Shlomi Ziv were kept in another, around 200 meters away.
The Shin Bet has known about the hostages location for some time, but needed to prepare the grounds to reach them safely. Once the time was deemed right, the IDF began an operation in nearby East Deir al-Balah and East al-Bureij, both near Nuseirat, in order to drain Hamas forces from the city.
The elite Yamam counterterrorism unit and Shin Bet officers executed the most difficult parts of the rescue, after studying the area in depth and practicing drills for every possible scenario. While operations like this one are usually done at night, this time it was decided to carry out the operation in the day, when Hamas’s guard was down.
Troops entered both buildings at the same time, so that both would be caught by surprise. Given the circumstances, the operation to reach Noa went smoothly. One terrorist was at her door, was killed, and the soldiers knocked and told her “it’s the IDF, we’ve come to take you home.” The soldiers then evacuated Noa to a vehicle and began to drive her towards a makeshift helipad on the beach.
The men were more difficult to reach, with more terrorists guarding their location. A gun battle broke out in the building, during which the Yamam unit commander, Chief Inspector Arnon Zamora, was critically wounded. The soldiers continued fighting, eliminated all the terrorists, and then evacuated the three hostages and Arnon to a vehicle.
Both vehicles came under heavy fire during evacuation, with RPGs being fired at them from civilian buildings, in all directions. The Israeli Air Force had to use heavy airstrikes to protect the mission. Noa’s group reached the helipad first, and she was flown to Tel Hashomer Hospital in Israel to meet her father (she later went to reunite with her mother in Ichilov Hospital).
The second vehicle was caught under extremely heavy fire, and got stuck. IDF soldiers from the 98th Division, who were stationed nearby in case of this scenario, came to the rescue, the the unit soon made it to the helipad, from where the remaining three hostages were flown to Israel.
Sadly, Chief Inspector Arnon Zamora, who has a long record of heroic operations, did not survive. The mission, which was originally called “Operation Summer Seeds” was renamed in his honor, to “Operation Arnon.”
The IDF estimates around 100 deaths in Gaza during the operation, and does not yet know how many were civilians. The blame is placed directly on Hamas, for holding hostages in a densely populated are, and for firing at the hostages rescuers from inside civilian buildings. No civilians would have been hurt if Hamas hadn’t fired at the rescuers from civilian buildings. Of course, the rescue wouldn’t even be necessary if the hostages were never taken in the first place.
The former hostages told family members that they had been moved around the city multiple times, each time held in civilian homes with Gazan families. The civilians were paid by Hamas.
May we hear more good news soon!
