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Hamas says 3 hostages, including an American, were killed in Israeli rescue raid: Live updates

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Hamas says 3 hostages, including an American, were killed in Israeli rescue raid: Live updates

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Militant-held Israeli hostages were among the more than 200 people killed in the raid that freed four captives and has been lauded as heroic in Israel but described as a massacre across much of the Middle East, Hamas officials said Sunday.

Abu Obaida, spokesman for the Hamas Al-Qassam Brigades military wing, called Saturday’s raid a “complex war crime.” He said three hostages were killed in the attack, including one holding a U.S. passport.

“By committing horrific massacres, the enemy was able to free some of his prisoners, but at the same time, it killed some of them,” he said. “The operation will pose a great danger to the (remaining hostages) and will have a negative impact on their conditions and lives.”

The Israeli operation Saturday involved hundreds of troops and heavy air support that pounded the Nuseirat refugee camp. Freed captives Noa Argamani, 25, Almog Meir Jan, 21, Andrey Kozlov, 27, and Shlomi Ziv, 40, were in good health and being reunited with their families, Israeli authorities said.

Neighboring Egypt and Jordan expressed outrage at the Israeli attack, calling it a violation of international law. Lebanon’s foreign ministry condemned the “massacre.” Jasem Mohamed Albudaiwi, secretary-general of the Gulf Cooperation Council, called the attack “a heinous and terrorist cime that targeted defenseless innocents with brutality.”

But Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu remained ecstatic Sunday, saying in a social media post that “Happy is the people that is blessed with its heroes. We will continue together to do our utmost to return all of the hostages, and to achieve victory over our enemies.”

‘Miraculous triumph’: What we know about Israel’s operation to rescue 4 hostages

Developments:

∎ Israeli War Cabinet minister and key opposition leader Benny Gantz was expected to resign Sunday night despite the prime minister’s social media post Sunday requesting that Gantz “not leave the emergency government. Don’t give up on unity.”

∎Netanyahu proposed the rescue be dubbed Operation Arnon in honor of the “hero of Israel Arnon Zamora,” the commander of the assault force who was killed during the effort.

∎ Sixty-four of the dead were children and 57 were women, the Hamas-run Gaza government media office said Sunday.

∎ Netanyahu’s office said he will appoint lawmaker Danny Danon to again serve as Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations. Ambassador Gilad Erdan announced a week ago that he would step down after four years; Danon served five years in the post before Erdan.

Gaza’s Health Ministry said Sunday that 274 Palestinians were killed in the raid, up from 210 it reported on Saturday. Sixty-four of the dead were children and 57 were women, the Hamas-run Gaza government media office said. Another 698 people were wounded. Israel said Arnon was the only Israeli soldier killed in an exchange of gunfire with militants.

Some special forces slipped into the Nuseirat refugee camp in a car with mattresses on top posing as Palestinians fleeing Rafah, according to Saudi-owned Asharq news channel in a report translated by the Times of Israel. They told locals they were escaping the Israeli attack on Rafah and would be staying in the building near a market − a building where Argamani was being held. The other freed hostages were being held in another building nearby.

Local also said some Israelis entered in humanitarian aid trucks, a claim the Israel military has denied.

Biden, Macron welcome rescue of four Gaza hostages, repeat call for cease-fire

Only about 100,000 of the more than 1 million residents and refugees who occupied Rafah a month ago remain in the city, according to the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees UNRWA. Rafah, on the Egyptian border in southern Gaza, had become home to Palestinians fleeing Israeli attacks that left much of northern and central Gaza in ruins. With Israel military options now focused on Rafah, many Palestinians are heading back toward their destroyed communities, the agency said.

“All UNRWA shelters in Rafah have been vacated. Many of the people who were based in Rafah have fled up the coast seeking safer locations in both Khan Younis and the middle area” of Gaza,” UNRWA said in a statement.

Contributing: Reuters

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