Israeli troops succeeded in reaching Argamani’s apartment without tipping off her guards, according to Hagari, who was watching video feeds from drones circling above and soldiers’ helmet cameras. Almost simultaneously, other units entered the building holding the three male hostages, about 220 yards away.“In Noa Argamani’s building, we surprised them completely,” Hagari said.The stunned young woman was bustled down the stairs into a vehicle and driven to a helicopter waiting nearby.Soldiers relayed the good news with a coded phrase: “We have the diamond in our hand.”The chopper lifted off, heading for a hospital near Tel Aviv. At 12:20 p.m., Argamani’s family was told she was free.
The guards with the three male hostages had not been taken by surprise. A Yamam commander was shot as they entered the building. A firefight erupted, exposing the covert mission.“Immediately, it became a war zone,” said Amir Avivi, a reservist brigadier general and former deputy commander of the IDF’s Gaza division who was briefed on the operation.The soldiers were able to get the three hostages and the injured man into a vehicle, but it broke down under Hamas fire from rifles and rocket-propelled grenades, officials said. At one point, Avivi said, they were forced to abandon the vehicle and seek refuge in a building nearby.The commanders called for air support.
Hamas used RPGs in a crowded refugee camp and marketplace. It is highly likely that Hamas, whose leaders gain politically from every dead civilian, did not distinguish between the soldiers and anyone else in the area. Yet not one news story even floats the idea that some civilians were killed in a firefight by Hamas weapons and not by the IDF. Yet Hamas members have routinely used weapons dressed as civilians - they film themselves doing it every day - and the soldiers have no way of distinguishing them.
To be sure, many civilians were killed by the air support bombings needed to extract the soldiers and hostages. Soldiers are not obligated under international law to allow themselves and the people they have rescued to be sitting ducks and let themselves die - they can use whatever means is necessary to get out alive, within the boundaries of proportionality. The proportionality calculation takes into account both the value of the soldiers lives and the military importance of rescuing the hostages successfully.
No nation would be considered guilty of violating the wars of law for doing the exact same thing. Yet only Israel is held to this standard.
The Post also links to a six second video taken by a nearby resident as the muffled gunfire began, showing the ladders used by the IDF to get to the third floor apartment owned by a "journalist" and his family who were holding the three hostages.
The person taking the video says, "Here they have arrived," almost as if she was expecting this.
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