Street parties were held across the country and the weekly rally in Tel Aviv demanding a government deal with Hamas to release the remaining 120 or so captives was invigorated by the news.
Israeli media celebrated the reunion of the Nova festival goer Noa Argamani with her terminally ill mother, and broke the sad news that the father of another freed Nova hostage, Almog Meir Jan, had died just hours before his son arrived home. Meir Jan is the only one of the four to have made any public comment so far, telling state broadcaster Kan Radio on Saturday: "Thank you, thank you to everyone. I am fine. I am with my supportive family."
Family members of the hostages said their loved ones were aware while in captivity of the grassroots protest movement pressing the government to bring them home.
The painstaking planning and intelligence-gathering for such a mission, the bravery of the ground troops and the accompanying morale boost for the public and army have been endlessly dissected: the operation is likely to go down as one of the most daring rescues in Israeli history, drawing comparisons to the raid on Entebbe airport in 1976.
This story is from the June 10, 2024 edition of The Guardian.
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This story is from the June 10, 2024 edition of The Guardian.
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