Report: Undercover Israeli Agents, Including Women, Hid in Gaza for Weeks Before Hostage Rescue

Female IDF soldier (Getty)
Getty

Israeli agents — including women — infiltrated into the city of Nuseirat in central Gaza and gathered intelligence for weeks before the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) launched a successful raid on Saturday to rescue four Israeli hostages.

That’s the report from the UK Jewish Chronicle, which published what it said was a detailed account of the rescue mission in which Noa Argamani, 25, Almog Meir Jan, 21, Andrey Kozlov, 27, and Shlomi Ziv, 40, were saved.

The Chronicle reported:

In order to finally verify the information and to prepare the ground for the operation, another team of undercover soldiers (including several women dressed in hijabs and long black dresses) was sent into the Nuseirat refugee camp. Pretending to be two Gazan families looking for a large house in Nuseirat, they arrived in two cheap-looking old cars loaded with domestic items characteristic of those families displaced in the Strip, such as mattresses and clothing identical to those of the locals.

A few days later, after settling into the house and getting to know the area, including shopping at the local market, and realising that they did not arouse suspicion, the undercovers began their mission: verifying the location where the hostages were held. They split into two teams. One team consisted of two commandos, a man dressed as a typical Gazan local and a woman dressed in a long black dress and hijab. They began marching down the street towards the ‘Al-Auda’ medical centre where, in a nearby residential building 200 metres from the hospital, Noa Argamani was held. The undercovers walked with complete confidence as if they were walking down a street in Tel Aviv. To add to their authenticity, they stopped from time to time at stalls along the sides of the street, showing interest in the products while complaining about the difficult situation in Gaza. This was done in fluent Arabic with a perfect Gazan accent. Behind them, walked four more undercover men, armed to give backup in case a ‘Fauda-like’ situation occurred (Fauda in Arabic means unexpected chaos).
The second team consisted of four female soldiers dressed as typical Arab women (one feigning being pregnant) carrying plastic bags full of food products and vegetables. They walked in two pairs (a young Muslim woman is not allowed to walk around alone) towards a nearby residential building, where, on the third floor, the three male hostages were held. Behind them walked four more undercover men armed to give them backup.

According to the Chronicle, Israel says that there were 104 Palestinian casualties — all combatants — in the firefight that ensued during the rescue attempt. Hamas says that at least 274 were killed, implying that they were all civilians.

Read the full Chronicle story here.

Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the recent e-book, “The Zionist Conspiracy (and how to join it),” now available on Audible. He is also the author of the e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.

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