Israeli PM Netanyahu’s statement after meeting with the rescued hostages and families
“This is an exciting day like no other, an exciting day for all citizens of Israel and many in the world, and an exciting day for me personally. I just met Andrei, Shlomi, Almog and Noa.” — Benjamin Netanyahu, Prime Minister of Israel.
I said to them: “Welcome back home”. I met their families, again. My wife and I have met with them many times. I hugged them. Jacob, Noa’s father celebrated his birthday, we celebrated his birthday there — next to his daughter who returned from captivity, and he said: “I received the best gift you could expect.”
Andrey told me that he had a notebook in captivity, and every day he would write one line: “Every day is a gift.” They told me: “as if we were reborn” and that’s really what happened.
And I want to repeat and make it clear – we will return them all. Even now we are working on more options.
When this operation was brought before me for final approval on Thursday evening, I knew it was very complex, and it was very dangerous. I want to tell you that the distance between success and failure is like a hair’s breadth, I knew that.
But nevertheless, I approved it without hesitation because I trust the Shin Bet, the IDF, the Israel Police, I trust the heroes, the fighters of the IDF and the Shin Bet who charged in the face of the fire, eliminated the terrorists, freed the hostages.
When I heard “the diamond in our hands” — the abducted, the sun in our hands, my heart expanded with infinite pride and a sigh of relief. It worked.
It is a heroic operation that will be recorded in the history of operations, in the history of the heroism of the people of Israel, but it did not come without a price.
I know that there are operations that go down in our nation’s history, that bring pride and glory to generations, but also involve terrible personal pain, and this was also the case this time with the fall of one of our best sons, Commander Arnon Zamora, the late YAMAM officer.
I know what pain his family is going through, but I also know that worldly fame is associated with the name and memory of their fallen loved one. He and his fellow heroes raised the nation’s stature, they proved that the State of Israel has the strength, wisdom and desire to fight those who seek our souls, the resourcefulness, the bravery, and that the IDF can reach anywhere.
We will return all our hostages one way or another.’
The Significance of today’s hostage rescue
For 8 months, Israel has waited for this day. Just when most of us thought to ourselves that it would never come – it did. It now gives us hope for what may still happen.
The more we study the few details we have gathered from the rescue mission itself, we are shown that today’s mission was nothing less than remarkable.
Have you ever wondered how it was like to see and live during an event that made history – like Entebbe?
Well – compared to what happened today in Nuseirat – Entebbe was a cakewalk.
Here, after months of investigation, intelligence gathering, planning and training – Israel pulled off something that has no peers in hostage rescue history.
The IDF and YAMAM troops that entered a dense population with terrorists and danger at every corner were able to enter the rooms the hostages were, according to plan, being held.
The hostages were then released, and the troops had to leave the area that held tens of thousands of enemy, guarding the hostages with their very bodies, and extract them to the designated assembly area and the helicopters that awaited them.
During the last week, the 98th Commando division was operating in other areas of the city which we now know was done to make the enemy think our troops were busy elsewhere.
The troops on the ground received step-by-step “cover-fire” from Jets and drones, tanks and precise artillery.
With the little we know, it is obvious that the operation was super-complex on a level never done before.
The IDF and Shabak along with the same YAMAM national anti-terror unit have done in Judea and Samaria hundreds if not thousands of similar raids – but most were child’s play compared to today’s op.
After a very difficult month, Israelis have something to celebrate, something to be proud of. Like Entebbe – this is a mission that can change the whole direction of this war.
Thank God for our security apparatus where the different arms can work together, united as one, and, of course, our soldiers who keep amazing us, time after time in their willingness to do anything it takes to beat back our barbaric enemies.
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EDITORS NOTE: This Newsrael column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.
