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THIS is the startling moment Israeli commandos bundle a rescued Noa Argamani into a chopper following a daylight raid on Gaza to free four hostages.
Footage released by the IDF, shows the 25-year-old Israeli scramble into the helicopter wearing a bullet-proof vest and a helmet.
A member of the IDF follows her on board before the helicopter promptly sets off.
The rescue this morning was part of a raid in the heart of Nuseirat in the Gaza Strip.
Three other hostages were free in the raid: Almog Meir Jan, 21, Andrey Kozlov, 27, and Shlomi Ziv, 40.
All four had been taken hostage by Hamas on October 7, last year, when the terror group launched a brutal attack on the Nova music festival in Israel.
A relative of Noa told reporters that the military had banged on the door of where she was being held in Gaza and yelled they had come to rescue her.
Asaf Shaibi said: “She told me a little. It was 10am and they banged on the door and shouted ‘It’s the IDF and we’ve come to rescue you’.
He added: “She is strong. She has met with her family and the prime minister [Benjamin Netanyahu].”
Officers from the elite police counter-terrorism unit Yamam along with Shin Bet agents simultaneously raided two buildings in the heart of central Gaza.
Noa was rescued at one site, while Almog Meir Jan, Andrey Kozlov, and Shlomi Ziv were at a second location.
The raid is said to be one of the deadliest carried out by Israel since the war started.
IDF spokesperson Daniel Hagari said their forces came under heavy fire during today’s rescue mission.
Commandos working to save the hostages responded by firing “from the air and from the street”, he said.
Hagari said: “We know about under 100 [Palestinian] casualties. I don’t know how many of them are terrorists.”
The IDF has said that the four hostages were being held by terrorists in the homes of Gaza families in two Hamas-controlled buildings.
Hamas has previously been accused of using civilians as human shields.
The terrorist group’s media office claimed “210 matyrs” had been killed in the Israeli operation – but this figure was disputed by medics on the ground who gave much lower estimates of around 70.
Hamas has not said how many of those were combatants.
An Israeli special forces commander was killed during the operation, a police statement said.
Gazan paramedics and residents said the assault killed scores of people and left mangled bodies of men, women and children strewn around a marketplace and a mosque.
The Hamas attack on Israel on October 7 killed around 1,200 people, which triggered the war.
Gunmen took around 250 hostages back to Gaza on October 7, more than 100 of whom were released in exchange for about 240 Palestinians held in Israeli jails during a week-long truce in November.
By Jessica Baker, Foreign News Reporter
RUTHLESS militant group Hamas has lost half its members since it began its assault on Israel and murdered 1,200 civilians on October 7.
The terrorist organisation has reportedly been left with no choice but to rely on hit-and-run insurgent tactics to fend off Israeli forces.
Hamas, which rules the densely-populated enclave of Gaza, has been reduced to between 9,000 and 12,000 fighters, according to three senior US officials familiar with battlefield developments.
The group was estimated to have had 20,000 to 25,000 members before it launched its unprecedented attack on Israel last year.
Members of the terror group are now largely relying on ambushes and improvised bombs to hit Israeli targets instead of engaging in sustained battles with Israeli forces.
The shift in tactics comes as Israel’s military closes in on Rafah, a city in the south of Gaza near the border of Egypt where Israel says Hamas militants have been hiding.
Terrorists are believed by Israel to be trying to conceal themselves among civilians, seeking shelter in places such as schools.
Noa’s plight became one of the most harrowing and recognisable images as the world came to terms with the atrocity on October 7.
She was seen being loaded onto a motorbike as she pleaded with them “don’t kill me”.
She and the other three hostages had spent 245 days in captivity since being kidnapped 8 months ago.
Noa will soon meet her mum Liora who has been suffering from stage four brain cancer – and had previously said all she wanted was to see her kidnapped daughter “one more time”.
Liora, 61, previously told the Times of Israel: “I want to see her one more time. Talk to her one more time.
“I don’t have a lot of time left in this world.”
Hundreds of soldiers took part in the “complex operation”.
However, Noa’s boyfriend Avinatan Or is believed to remain held in captivity by Hamas.
The four hostages are all understood to be well – but have been rushed straight to hospital after being rescued from Gaza.
There are 116 hostages left in the coastal enclave, according to Israeli tallies, including at least 40 whom Israeli authorities have declared dead in absentia.
The spokesperson for Hamas’ armed al-Qassam Brigades, Abu Ubaida, said some hostages were killed during the rescue operation.
Hamas had earlier said it still held a large number of hostages.
Attempts by the United States and regional countries to forge a deal that would release all remaining hostages in return for a ceasefire have repeatedly failed as Israel presses its assault in Gaza.
Fresh airstrikes in the southern city of Rafah hit homes later on Saturday, residents and Hamas officials said.
Israeli News 12 broadcast footage of Noa reunited with her father, smiling and embracing him.
Video of Argamani’s kidnapping, showing her shouting “Don’t kill me!” as she was driven into Gaza on a motorbike, had circulated soon after she was taken on October 7.
A smiling Noa was shown speaking by phone to Israeli President Isaac Herzog from hospital surrounded by family and friends, in footage released by the president’s office.
“Thank you for everything, thank you for this moment,” she said.
“I am so excited to hear your voice, it brings tears to my eyes … Welcome home,” Herzog said.
Poland praised the rescue of the hostages and said that one was a dual Israeli-Polish citizen.
Harrowing footage showed the moment Noa was snatched by Hamas terrorists and dragged away before being taken to Gaza.
She was at the Nova music festival in the desert when the militants dragged her away on a motorcycle as she begged “Don’t kill me”.
The disturbing footage showed her with her arms outstretched as she pleads with them to let her go.
The 25-year-old university student screams “Don’t kill me! No, no, no”, as the gunmen speed away with her trapped in between them.
Her boyfriend, Avi Nathan, is held tightly by two other terrorists nearby as he watches his helpless girlfriend in horror.
Noa’s family only discovered she had been taken when they stumbled upon the disturbing footage online.
More footage of her being held in an unknown location appeared online since her abduction.
Many of the remaining hostages include children including young girls, women and the elderly.
Netanyahu says his country will continue to “fight with our fingernails” despite international authorities calling for a ceasefire.
The war has destabilised the wider Middle East, drawing in Hamas’s main backer Iran and its heavily armed Lebanese ally Hezbollah, which Israeli officials are threatening to go to war with on Israel’s northern border.
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