VFI News 4 Hostages Rescued by the IDF, Gaza Journalist Was Holding 3 of Them in His Home

4 Hostages Rescued by the IDF, Gaza Journalist Was Holding 3 of Them in His Home . . .

With Shavuot beginning tomorrow at sundown, we wish all our readers Chag Shavuot Sameach! May You rejoice in the festivities as you reflect on the giving of the Torah our Father has given us and the first fruits of the harvest. May you experience His Holy Spirit as the disciples did when He poured out His spirit on the day of Pentecost and may the fruit of the Spirit be present in your life.

Israel says it safely rescued four hostages that were captured by Hamas during the October 7 Hamas attacks. The IDF said the hostages, three men and one woman, were rescued in the largest hostage rescue operation since the war with Hamas began in Gaza.

Noa Argamani, 26, Almog Meir Jan, 22, Shlomi Ziv, 41, and Andrey Kozlov, 27, were rescued in two separate locations in a complex special daytime operation in the heart of Nuseirat in central Gaza. They had been held in captivity by the terrorist group for 246 days.

Argamani has been one of the most widely recognized hostages since she was abducted from a music festival in southern Israel. The video of her abduction was among the first to surface, images of her horrified face widely shared — Argamani detained between two men on a motorcycle, one arm outstretched and the other held down as she screams “Don’t kill me!”

Her mother, Liora, has stage four brain cancer and in April released a video pleading to see her daughter before she dies. Officers of the National Police special anti-terror unit of Yamam along with Shin Bet agents simultaneously raided two Hamas buildings to pluck the hostages to safety.

Argamani was rescued at one site, while Meir Jan, Kozlov, and Ziv were at the second location. During the operation, Chief Inspector Arnon Zmora, an officer in the special anti-terror unit of Yamam, was critically injured and later died from his injuries. (FN / VFI News)

“Lord, we thank You for the rescue of our four hostages and we are also extremely grateful for our defense forces that worked tirelessly to ensure this result. We send our sincerest condolences to the family of Chief Inspector Zmora and we thank him for his work, efforts, and integrity. May You cover his family with Your undying love and provide them with comfort during this difficult time. We also pray for the immediate release of all remaining hostages without any additional loss of human lives in Yeshua’s name.”

The articles included in this publication do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of Vision for Israel. We try to provide accurate reporting on news pertinent to Israel, the Middle East, the diaspora, and Jewish issues around the world—and we hope that you find it both informative and useful for intercessory prayer.

IDF operatives were able to secure four former hostages in what military chiefs branded a “complex daytime operation” at 11 am (8 am GMT) on Saturday, June 8, in Nuseirat. Aerial footage released by the IDF showed a group of around 11 people running along the ground in Gaza and into the awaiting helicopter to escape.

Noa Argamani, one of the four hostages, is shown in emotional scenes to have returned to the arms of her father on the day of his birthday. Noa will now be able to see her mother who has repeatedly shared her prayers to see her daughter again since her diagnosis with stage 4 cancer.

Among the hostages freed was also Andrey Kozlov, 27, a Russian who moved to Israel in 2022. He had been working as a security guard at the Nova festival when he was kidnapped. Shlomi Ziv, 41, was also part of security at the festival and managed to call his sisters as the attack unfolded, telling them he did not want them to worry.

Almog Meir Jan, 21, tried to flee the festival, but he and a friend only managed to drive a short distance in the friend’s car before being forced to stop. He phoned his mother during the attack. The operation is understood to have been planned for months.

The Israeli forces practiced using models of the two houses where the hostages were held. The houses, which were 200 m apart, were raided simultaneously ‘like a surgical operation’ to reduce the risk of the hostages being killed in either one, the IDF said. They were held in locked rooms in apartments containing both families and armed guards.

The helicopter mission to rescue Noa went quickly and easily, but the squad set to retrieve the other three met stiff resistance and descended into a firefight with Hamas terrorists.

It was during the latter mission that Officer Arnon Zmora was fatally injured. The IDF later said the married father of two, 36, had led a battle against Hamas gunmen on October 7 at the Yad Mordechai kibbutz. It also said that the rescue operation would be retrospectively named “Operation Arnon” in his honor. (DM / VFI News)

“He rules the world in righteousness and judges the peoples with equity. The Lord is a refuge for the oppressed, a stronghold in times of trouble.” - Psalm 9:8-9

A Gaza journalist who had previously written an article for Al Jazeera was holding three hostages in his home with his family before he was killed by Israeli commandos during the rescue operation on Saturday, June 8, according to the Israeli military.

Abdallah Aljamal, who also worked as a spokesman for the Hamas-run labor ministry, was killed when special forces soldiers stormed his home in central Gaza and rescued hostages Almog Meir Jan, Andri Kozlov, and Shlomi Ziv, the IDF said.

Aljamal’s death was originally reported by Rami Abdu, the head of the Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor, who claimed IDF soldiers raided the journalist’s home and killed him and several members of his family.

The IDF acknowledged that Aljamal was keeping the hostages inside his family home, but made no mention of what happened to his relatives. “This is further proof that the Hamas terrorist organization uses the civilian population as a human shield,” the IDF said in a statement.

Aljamal had previously written a column for Al Jazeera in 2019. The Qatar-based outlet said Aljamal was never an employee. Before his death, Aljamal was contributing to a Palestinian news outlet, where he wrote a plethora of stories covering the deaths of Palestinians in Gaza during Israel’s offensive. (NYP / VFI News)

“I said to myself, ‘God will bring into judgment both the righteous and the wicked, for there will be a time for every activity, a time to judge every deed.’” - Ecclesiastes 3:17

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is scheduled to arrive in Israel on Monday afternoon, June 10, where he will meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, Opposition Leader Yair Lapid, and President Isaac Herzog.

Blinken is expected to pressure the Israeli officials to accept the proposed ceasefire and hostage deal that President Biden presented at the end of last month.

A senior Biden administration official told American media that Israel’s operation which rescued the four hostages on Saturday is likely to complicate the Secretary of State’s efforts to reach such a deal.

According to the official, the successful operation increased Prime Minister Netanyahu’s determination to continue pursuing military operations, rather than agreeing to a ceasefire, while also hardening the Hamas leadership’s stance as well.

The official noted that while the rescue of the four Israeli hostages is welcome news, it is not going to change the status quo because there is still a significant number of hostages remaining, including five Americans believed to be alive. (INN / VFI News)

“Our Heavenly Father, we pray for all the remaining hostages and for a beneficial deal to be brought into fruition in the coming days. We pray in Yeshua’s name that further violence will be averted and that all hostages will be immediately released on favorable conditions for our nation.”

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Shortly after Israeli forces freed the hostages Noa Argamani, Andrey Kozlov, Shlomi Ziv, and Almog Meir on Saturday, June 8, Hamas published a statement from the terror organization’s leader, Ismail Haniyeh, in which the arch-terrorist asserted that Hamas would not surrender.

“Our people will not surrender, and the resistance will continue to defend our rights in the face of this criminal enemy,” Haniyeh reportedly said. “And if the occupation believes that it can impose its choices on us by force, it is delusional, and the movement will not agree to any agreement that does not achieve security for our people first and foremost.”

In the statement, the Hamas leader asserted that the Israeli military was engaging in massacres of the Palestinian people in Gaza. “[Israel] continues the massacres against our people, children, and women, the chapters of which are now taking place in Nuseirat and Deir al-Balah.”

After securing the release of the hostages, the IDF reported that the rescue operation had taken place in two different locations in central Nuseirat.

According to the Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza, the bodies of at least 93 Palestinians who were killed during Israeli activities in Nuseirat and other areas in the central region of the Gaza Strip arrived at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital on Saturday. The ministry does not distinguish between combatants and civilians in its reporting. (JPost / VFI News)

A drone launched from Lebanon, likely by the Hezbollah terror group, impacted an open area in the Jezreel Valley, near Nazareth, in northern Israel on Friday afternoon, June 7, the Israeli military said.

According to the IDF, it carried out a failed attempt to intercept the drone before the aircraft impacted in an open field, causing no injuries or major damage. Residents of the area reported seeing an Iron Dome missile launch. The IDF said it was investigating why it failed to down the drone and why sirens did not sound.

The incident potentially marked the deepest Hezbollah attack in Israel amid the war, with the projectile hitting an area some 40 kilometers (24 miles) from the border. The previous deepest attack occurred last month when a Hezbollah drone struck a military facility some 35 kilometers (21 miles) from the Lebanon border.

Hezbollah did not immediately claim responsibility for Friday’s drone. At the same time as the incident near Nazareth, a second drone struck an area near the border community of Shomera, the military added. No injuries were caused by either drone.

On Friday evening, the military said two rockets launched from Lebanon struck open areas near Matat, and that also on Friday, Israeli fighter jets struck a Hezbollah rocket launcher and other infrastructure in southern Lebanon. (TOI / VFI News)

“God, we ask that the attacks from Lebanon cease and for the terrorist organization Hezbollah to be immediately dismantled, in Yeshua’s name. We pray that our people will be able to live peacefully with all our neighbors and that no one will experience any form of violence, tragic loss, or fear for their and their loved ones’ lives. Please protect Your people from those seeking to harm them and lead the wicked to repentance and immediate abandonment of their malicious plans, according to Your will.”

Former Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman said on Tuesday, June 4, that Tehran seeks a nuclear Holocaust targeting the Jewish state. More specifically, Lieberman, a member of Israel’s parliament (Knesset), said that Iran is “planning a Holocaust for us in the next two years.”

“We are in the midst of an Iranian extermination program,” Lieberman said. “Israel will be attacked with the aim of destroying it from several fronts with tens of thousands of missiles at the same time.”

A day after Lieberman’s comments, Israeli Brig. Gen (Res.) Yossi Kuperwasser, the former head of the research division in the IDF’s Military Intelligence, told Israeli media, “The Biden administration wants to avoid any confrontation with Iran. They are afraid that if they move into confrontation, confrontational Iran may actually move towards having a bomb. But maybe [Iran’s leaders] believe that Trump is going to become the next president. They might actually try to break out a bomb now.”

Kuperwasser continued, “They have enough material to produce the fissile material that is necessary for three bombs within a month.” (FN / VFI News)

“No weapon forged against you will prevail, and you will refute every tongue that accuses you. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, and this is their vindication from Me,” declares the Lord. - Isaiah 54:17

The Islamic Republic of Iran’s use of artificial intelligence (AI) to crack down on its populace is having a particular impact on the freedoms of Iranian women.

Behnam Ben Taleblu, a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told American media that the Iranian regime “is moving into the AI realm to benefit even more from technology that links together the disparate elements of facial recognition, CCTV, cell phone analysis, traffic geolocation, and internet monitoring,” which “bolsters its cyber crackdown on street protesters or women who don’t wear their hijab correctly.”

Enhanced AI tools will be a key facet of the forthcoming Hijab and Chastity Bill, approved by the Iranian Parliament in September 2023 and awaiting ratification from the regime’s Guardian Council.

Taleblu said AI has become “the cherry on the sundae of Iran’s digital repression, whether that starts with very crude tools like CCTV in a shop or whatever repository of purportedly criminal behavior that the regime puts at the feet of these AI sorting tools. Because humans don’t have to make the linkages, it frees up more manpower for mischief from the Iranian repressive apparatus.”

Article 60 of the Hijab and Chastity Bill forces private businesses to turn in video footage to enforcement personnel to check for compliance. Businesses that fail to comply could lose “two to six months worth of profits.” Women who fail to cover their hair properly face consequences ranging from fines to “social exclusion, exile, closure of social media pages, passport confiscation for up to two years” and possibly imprisonment for up to 10 years. (FN / VFI News)

The suggestions, opinions, and scripture references made by VFI News writers and editors are based on the best information received.

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