World
How Israel's daring hostage rescue mission unfolded: 'A surgical operation'
New details about Israel’s bold rescue of four hostages are coming to light with the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) describing the daytime operation as a “high-risk, complex mission” that was “surgical” in its precision.
The mission was planned for weeks using “precise intelligence” and took place at around 11 a.m. local time in the heart of Nuseirat in central Gaza, according to Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari of the IDF.
Officers of the National Police special anti-terror unit of Yamam along with Shin Bet agents simultaneously raided two Hamas buildings to pluck the three male hostages and one female hostage to safety. The soldiers had been undergoing intense training for weeks in preparation for the rescue mission, Hagari said.
ISRAEL RESCUES 4 HOSTAGES KIDNAPPED BY HAMAS: ‘WE ARE OVERJOYED’
Noa Argamani, 26, Almog Meir Jan, 22, Shlomi Ziv, 41, and Andrey Kozlov, 27, were rescued in two separate locations in a complex daytime operation in the heart of Nuseirat in central Gaza. (IDF)
Noa Argamani, 26, was rescued at one site, while Almog Meir Jan, 22, Shlomi Ziv, 41, and Andrey Kozlov, 27, were taken from the second location. Argamani has been one of the most widely recognized hostages since video of her abduction was among the first to surface. She can be seen in the video between two men on a motorcycle with one arm outstretched and the other held down as she screams “Don’t kill me!”
Dramatic aerial footage from this morning’s rescue shows Meir Jan, Kozlov and Ziv running with Israeli forces to a waiting helicopter before the chopper takes off to bring them to safety.
During the operation, Chief Inspector Arnon Zmora, 36, an officer in the special anti-terror unit of Yamam, was critically injured and later died from his injuries. He leaves behind a wife and two children.
Under 100 Palestinians were killed in the raid, Hagari said.
Hagari said Hamas has been holding hostages inside civilian buildings, and Israeli intelligence was able to pinpoint two of these buildings in Nuseirat where families were staying with armed guards inside.
Video: Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu meets rescued hostages
The buildings were about 650 feet apart, and Israeli forces decided to move on both buildings at the same time because they feared Hamas might kill hostages in one of the buildings if they saw the other coming under attack.
“This is a huge risk because they might have thought that we were preparing for another raid,” Hagari said. “You have to understand that they’re moving the hostages from flat to flat.”
Hagari said the decision to carry out the mission during the day was also to bring about an element of surprise because Hamas would not have been expecting it.
Noa Argaman hugging her father, left; Andrey Kozlov, top right, leaving a helicopter; and military leaders planning the operation, bottom right. (IDF)
“In the daytime, you take more risks to make sure the surprise element is kept, and we understood that inside the flats it would give us leverage,” Hagari said. “We surprised them completely, but it was still hard,” he said.
The command to go was given at 11 a.m. and, 25 minutes later, the raid started, he said.
Israeli forces exchanged gunfire with the guards in the building with the three male hostages. In the crossfire, Zmora was injured and then later died at a hospital, Hagari said.
“He is a warrior that gave his life for bringing home four hostages alive,” Hagari said of Zmora.
As soldiers left the building, they were also met with gunfire and RPG fire, leading to their vehicle being stuck. Other forces came to their rescue and helped them flee.
The hostages were then taken to two helicopters with the second of those helicopters taking the three hostages and Zmora.
Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant approves the operation to rescue the hostages together with IDF Chief of the General Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi, Head of the IDF’s Intelligence Directorate Maj. Gen. Aharon Haliva and Maj. Gen. (Res.) Nitzan Alon. (Ariel Hermoni/IMoD)
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Hagari said the command room where the mission was being directed was tense while it took “hundreds of warriors” in the surrounding area to carry out the operation.
“This is a surgical operation, like a brain operation; it has to be so accurate. Imagine that on a civilian street with a lot of people around with trucks and cars,” Hagari said.
Hagari said under 100 Palestinian casualties were reported, and he wasn’t sure how many of them were terrorists.
Almog Jan Meir reunited with his family (IDF)
“But they were using the civilians to embed them with the hostages. They were using the civilians to fire on the Israeli forces when they went out. And from the operation at this level, so many fires was a lot of force. We needed to fire from the air and from the street,” Hagari said.
“And some of the casualties were terrorists in the [prepared] targets that we had, and the Air Force conducted the fire during the operation.”
To prepare for the mission, Hagari said Israeli forces had built models of the buildings to practice the raid and gathered intelligence in “multiple ways” to ensure the operation would be successful.
“We have tried in the past, but in the end did not execute because we understood we didn’t have the right conditions, the right leverage,” Hagari said.
“In the past, we conducted in-field operations more than three or four times. Forces from special units were waiting to raid an apartment, but we did not execute that because we understood that we didn’t have this leverage. This type of operation has a lot of details, like in a puzzle.
Chief Inspector Arnon Zmora was killed during the raid. (IDF)
“We need to make sure — and we never have all the links — that we have enough links to ensure that.”
Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant described the mission as one of the “most heroic and extraordinary operations” he had witnessed over the course of his 47 years serving in Israel’s defense establishment.
“Our troops showed so much courage operating under heavy fire in the most complex [urban environment in Gaza],” Gallant said.
“I do not remember having completed operations of this kind at this intensity and with this level of cooperation and success.”
Fox News’ Yonat Friling contributed to this report.
World
Landlords allegedly posting ‘Muslim-only’ apartment ads in violation of country’s equality act: report
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Some landlords in England are apparently advertising “Muslim-only” apartments online, according to a local media report.
An investigation by The Telegraph found that alleged listings posted in London on Facebook, Gumtree and Telegram feature phrases such as “only for Muslims,” “for 2 Muslim boys or 2 Muslim girls,” and “Muslims preferred.”
Other ads appeal to Punjabi and Gujarati speakers, while some job vacancies on the platforms are advertised for men only.
Some listings specify “Hindu only,” in addition to posts that likely use religious subtext by stating: “The house should be alcohol and smoke-free.”
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On Facebook, a company called Roshan Properties posted dozens of listings stating “prefer Muslim boy,” “one double room is available for Muslims,” and “suitable for Punjabi boy.” A Meta spokesman told Fox News Digital that Facebook then removed the company’s page “for violating the platform’s policies on discriminatory practices.”
Apartment buildings in Westminster, London, U.K. (John Keeble/Getty Images)
The ads run afoul of Britain’s Equality Act 2010, which prohibits discrimination based on religion or belief, race and other protected characteristics.
“These adverts are disgusting and anti-British. It goes without saying that there would be a national outrage if the tables were turned,” Robert Jenrick, Reform UK’s economic spokesman, told The Telegraph. “All forms of racism are unacceptable, and no religious group should get a special exemption to discriminate in this way.”
Houses and properties line Cheyne Walk in Chelsea, London, U.K. Some landlords in the city are illegally advertising for “Muslim only” tenants across the city, an investigation by The Telegraph has found. (Richard Baker/In Pictures via Getty Images)
One landlord told The Telegraph to “go away” when asked about an ad for a “Muslims only” room for $1,150, and whether it was available to renters of other faiths.
A spokesperson for Gumtree told the newspaper that the company has clear policies in place that prohibit unlawful discrimination.
On Facebook, a company called Roshan Properties posted dozens of listings stating “prefer Muslim boy,” (Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
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“We take reports of inappropriate listings very seriously,” the spokesperson said. “The ads referenced appear to relate to private rooms within shared homes, where existing occupants may express preferences about who they live with. This is different from renting out an entire property, which is subject to stricter rules under the Equality Act.”
Telegram did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.
Europe’s critical raw materials crisis has a partial answer sitting in the waste stream — but the continent has been too slow to see it.
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Dorota Włoch, CEO of Eneris Surowce, was direct: recycling is no longer optional.
Unlike plastics, metals can be recovered and reused indefinitely, making urban mining — the recovery of raw materials from existing products and waste — increasingly valuable, particularly for batteries.
“From recycling, we recover metallic aluminium and so-called black mass, which is a concentrate of metals, mainly cobalt-nickel. These are some of the most valuable battery metals. And batteries are crucial today, not only in the automotive sector, but also in storing energy from renewable sources such as wind and solar,” she said.
‘Europe is 25 years late’
Włoch put the scale of the problem plainly. “Deposits are critical — any machine can be bought, but natural resources are not. They are non-transferable and non-renewable. If we use them, they simply disappear,” she said.
Europe’s belated recognition of that reality has cost it dearly.
“The regulation of critical raw materials came 25 years after other regions of the world had invested heavily in deposits. Europe was too passive. Today we are catching up, but the regulations are often so demanding that countries like Poland have difficulty implementing them.”
Who benefits most from extraction?
Poland holds significant reserves of raw materials critical to the modern economy, such as copper, coking coal, nickel, platinum group metals, helium, rhenium, lead and silver.
But the minerals needed most for the energy transition, such as lithium, cobalt and graphite, exist only in limited quantities, forcing imports.
Arkadiusz Kustra, dean of the faculty of civil engineering and resource management at AGH University of Science and Technology in Kraków, told a panel at the European Economic Congress that awareness of the full supply chain, and who profits from it, was now essential.
He pointed to Serbia as a case study.
“Serbia has lithium deposits and is already in talks with Mercedes or Stellantis,” he said. Belgrade is using that leverage to attract investment in battery factories and car plants, keeping more of the value chain at home.
The goal, Kustra argued, should be regional supply chains that retain added value locally.
“You can earn the least at the beginning and the most from the end customer,” he said.
The bigger obstacle is Chinese dominance.
“Margins in critical raw materials largely go to the Chinese, who control more than 90% of processing and trading, even though they do not own most of the deposits,” he said.
In the Democratic Republic of Congo — among the world’s most resource-rich countries — Chinese entities control around 90% of deposits.
The panel also pointed to growing interest in new supply partnerships, with Poland eyeing assets in the Congo region and the Americas.
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