Israel says 4 hostages rescued alive as it intensifies Gaza assault

Israel said its forces rescued four hostages alive from Nuseirat on June 8 as it intensified an assault despite scrutiny over a deadly strike on a United Nations-run school there.

The four had been kidnapped by the Palestinian Islamist militant group Hamas from the Nova music festival during the Oct 7, 2023 attacks that sparked the war, the army said.

Ms Noa Argamani, 25, Mr Almog Meir Jan, 21, Mr Andrey Kozlov, 27, and Mr Shlomi Ziv, 40, had been "rescued... from two separate locations in the heart of Nuseirat" in a "complex daytime operation", the Israeli military said, adding that they were in "good medical condition".

An Israeli military spokesman said the hostage rescue operation took place under fire in the heart of residential neighbourhood, where he said Hamas had been hiding captives among Gaza civilians under guard by armed milia tants.

Israeli forces returned fire, including with air strikes, the spokesman, Rear-Admiral Daniel Hagari, added.

One Israeli special forces soldier was killed during the operation, a police statement said.

The military had said, shortly before announcing the rare hostage rescue, that troops were targeting "terrorist infrastructure" around the Nuseirat camp.

Mr Ismail al-Thawbta, director of the Hamas-run government media office, told Reuters the number of Palestinians killed in Nuseirat and nearby areas had risen to 93.

Hamas said there were "dozens of bodies of martyrs and wounded lying on the ground, in the streets and in safe rooms" and accused Israeli forces of engaging in "brutal and savage aggression on Nuseirat camp" The assault on Nuseirat came despite growing pressure on Israel after a strike on a UN-run school in the camp on June 6 that a Gaza hospital said had killed 37 people.

The Israeli military acknowledged that it conducted the strike in the Nuseirat refugee camp, saying it targeted a base of Hamas and killed 17 "terrorists".