Notes on The Hostage Rescue

How They Did It

The Shin Bet, Mossad, and the IDF all have in their ranks men, and women, too, who speak perfect Arabic, and who are able to mimic, too, the pronunciation of Gazans. What’s more, they are masters of disguise. They not only sound, but look like Arabs. They dress as Arabs. Some have deliberately acquired zebibahs in the middle of their foreheads. They know which phrases about Allah to intersperse in their conversation. They can properly curse the Yahudim. They can point their index finger to the sky. More on the IDF special forces who entered Nuseirat camp in broad daylight to rescue four hostages can be found here: “Report: Special forces posed as displaced Gazans moving into building where hostage held,” by Gianluca Pacchiani, Times of Israel, June 9, 2024:

Some of the special forces that entered the Nuseirat camp in Gaza yesterday to conduct a large-scale operation to free four hostages posed as displaced Gazans from Rafah, according to local residents who spoke with the Saudi-owned Asharq news channel.

Ynet claims that the special forces belonged to Israeli units that operate in Palestinian areas by blending in with local Arabs, including speaking the language fluently.

The unit, which also included women, reportedly entered the Nuseirat camp from an area close to the American aid pier and the Netzarim corridor, an east-west passage bisecting Gaza north of the camp which has been held by the IDF and is used as a jumping off point for raids in northern and central Gaza.

The disguised forces arrived in a white car carrying mattresses on top, and the women were dressed in the clothes “that women are wearing here in the war,” Asharq reports.

Locals asked the newcomers where they came from, and the latter answered that they were escaping the IDF operation in Rafah, and had rented a place in the area around the market in Nuseirat, pointing at the building where Noa Argamani was being held….

Their perfect Arabic, their mattresses piled high, their utterly plausible tale of fleeing from Rafah, their ability to fight their way out of Nuseirat where Hamas had them surrounded, with the loss of only one soldier – this is the stuff of Hollywood rescues.

Death of a Hostage’s Father

Joy was mixed with grief when hostage Almog Meir Jan returned safely to Israel. More on this dramatic tale can be found here: “Father of hostage Almog Meir Jan died hours before son’s rescue: ‘He died of grief,’” Times of Israel, June 9, 2024:

The father of rescued hostage Almog Meir Jan, 21, died hours before he could learn his son was coming home on Saturday.

Meir Jan, along with Noa Argamani, 26, Andrey Kozlov, 27, and Shlomi Ziv, 40, was rescued Saturday in a stunning daytime operation in Gaza’s Nuseirat camp.

“My brother died of grief and didn’t get to see his son return. The night before Almog’s return, my brother’s heart stopped,” Almog’s aunt Dina Jan told the Kan public broadcaster Sunday.

“We are very happy about Almog’s return, but the brain is unable to absorb that this is the end. We are broken,” she said, explaining that her brother lived alone in Kfar Saba.

 Did Abdallah Aljamal, Who Held Noa Argamani Captive, Ever Work For Al Jazeera?

It seems that Abdallah Aljamal, who held Noa Argamani captive, did work for both Al Jazeera and for an American non-profit. More on this story can be found here: “Did Gazan who held Israeli hostages work for Al Jazeera and US-based charity?,” by Ohad Merlin, Jerusalem Post, June 9, 2024

Ramy Abdu, a Europe-based Hamas operative designated by Israel who heads the Euro-Med Human Rights monitor, may have unintentionally revealed that one of those related or in charge of keeping Israeli hostages on behalf of Hamas had worked for a US-based 501(c)3 tax-exempt organization.

In two tweets on his personal X account, Abdu named Abdallah Aljamal, a 36-year-old “journalist,” and his wife Fatima, as some of those killed by the IDF forces during their incursion into houses in Nuseirat where the hostages were held.

However, further research has shown that Aljamal worked for the Palestine Chronicle, a pro-Hamas outlet led by ex-Al-Jazeera official Ramzi Baroud, operating under the auspices of the People Media Project, a 501(c)3 organization registered since 2012 in Olympia, Washington State, whose IRS filings were not found online.

Likewise, Aljamal was found to have written for Al Jazeera, the mouthpiece of Hamas leaders haven, Qatar, as well as serving as spokesperson for Hamas’s Ministry of Labor….

On Sunday morning, Al Jazeera denied that Aljamal had been employed by the organization. It stated the rumors were untrue and baseless. 

Of course those rumors that Abdallah Aljamal had worked for Al Jazeera were “untrue and baseless.” Would Al Jazeera lie? And if he did not work for Al Jazeera, could someone tell us, since Ramy Abdu described him as a “journalist,” what media outlets Aljamal had worked for? It is known that he reported for the Palestine Chronicle, a former Hamas outlet led by ex-Al-Jazeera official Ramzi Baroud, which operated under the auspices of the People Media Project, a 501(c)3 organization that has been registered since 2012 in Olympia, Washington State. Surely the Treasury Department will want to look into that 501c(3) designation for the People Media Project that has supported the Hamas-linked Palestine Chronicle. We can’t have one part of the government banning Hamas as a “designated terrorist group” and another part of it providing favorable tax treatment for groups linked to it. That would make no sense.

How Many “Innocent Civilians” Did the Israelis Kill In The Hostage Rescue?

Just after the Israeli raid to rescue hostages held in Nuseirat, the Gaza Health Ministry, run by Hamas, announced that “70 innocent Palestinians” had been killed in the raid. At the same time, the IDF’s spokesman Daniel Hagari announced that it believed that “under 100 Palestinians” had been killed, and that it also believed many dozens of them had been Hamas members. Later that day, the Gaza Health Ministry had upped its estimate: now it claimed that “110 innocent Palestinians had been killed.” Apparently seeing how easily that new figure was swallowed without question, it gave a brand-new figure, late on June 8, of 226 civilians killed, and about 400 wounded. Finally, on June 9, Hamas through the Gaza Health Ministry proclaimed that 274 Gazans had been killed and 700 wounded. It now seems content to stick with that figure. But why should we accept any of those figures from Hamas that have so magically been inflating? Who is to say that the Israeli figure of “under 100” killed cannot possibly be true? The IDF, after all, has as long a record of telling the truth as Hamas has of lying.