Israeli captives' retrieval operation almost failed: WSJ
3 Min Read
The former commander of Yamam, the Israeli team in charge of the operation, explains how their cover was blown and what atrocities they committed to complete the operation.
-
Palestinians help a wounded man after Israeli strikes in the Nuseirat refugee camp, Gaza Strip, Saturday, June 8, 2024. (AP)
A shootout on Saturday during the IOF's attacks in the Nuseirat camp that left over 270 Palestinians dead blew the IOF's cover during which they hysterically began to bomb the area to divert attention and invade to retrieve the captives, The Wall Street Journal reported.
During the crossfire, a vehicle with captives and forces was hit, according to David Tzur, the former commander of Yamam, the Israeli team in charge of the operation. An Israeli armored vehicle then entered as a backup, but it was hit as well so another arrived to transfer the captives to helicopters as per Army Radio.
An IOF official said, “There was a thin line between being a huge success and a huge failure."
The captives and the Israeli forces barely made it out alive amid the raging firefight.
According to Al Mayadeen's correspondent in Gaza, an Israeli special force had infiltrated the Nuseirat refugee camp. Upon the force's discovery by the Resistance, heavy confrontations ensued. Our correspondent maintained that it was the discovery of the force that led to this heavy Israeli shelling and the massacre in the camp.
Tzur compared Saturday to scenes portrayed in the book and movie “Black Hawk Down”, noting that airstrikes and shelling were meant to “lay down fire so that people don’t come near the vehicles.”
“Only with a ring of fire can you extricate them,” he admitted.
Israeli occupation forces said they retrieved four live captives from the camp.
Read next: Everyone in my family was either killed or injured: Nuseirat massacre
Reportedly, Resistance fighters guarding the captives had confronted the invading Israeli force, which led to the death of an occupation officer from the Yamam unit.
Meanwhile, the military spokesperson for the al-Qassam Brigades, Abu Obeida, affirmed on Saturday that the Israeli occupation's massacre in the Nuseirat refugee camp was a "complex war crime that harmed its captives first."
In a statement, Abu Obeida revealed that "the enemy was able to retrieve some of the captives by committing a horrifying massacre, but killed a few others in the process."
He stressed that the operation "will pose a grave danger to the enemy's captives, and will negatively impact their circumstances and lives."
