With U.S. Support: How the Israeli Occupation Carried Out the Nuseirat Massacre in Central Gaza

The Israeli Occupation chose the busiest moment in the Nuseirat refugee camp on Saturday, June 8, to send in dozens of its soldiers, under heavy cover of artillery and aviation fire, to free 4 of its hostages who remained in Hamas's grip for more than 8 months.

The operation ended with the rescue of an Israeli woman and three men, and the killing and wounding of hundreds of Palestinian civilians, in the third operation of its kind in which the Israeli Occupation Forces succeeded in freeing its hostages held by Hamas, but the result this time was more lives lost within a few minutes.

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres criticized what he described as Israeli military operations that continue to claim dozens of Palestinian civilians in the Gaza Strip.

So far, the Israeli Occupation forces have been able to rescue only 7 hostages alive in 3 separate military operations.

In December 2023, the Israeli military accidentally shot and killed 3 hostages in Gaza who were trying to get to safety.

Bloody Military Operation

The Israeli Occupation recently rescued 4 hostages alive from the central Gaza Strip, in a dramatic operation, in which they used all types of weapons on land, sea and air, leaving behind a massacre that left at least 274 Palestinians dead and 698 wounded.

Israeli Army Minister Yoav Gallant described the operation as one of the most impressive operations he had seen in 47 years.

He considered that the release of the kidnapped persons constituted not only an impressive operational success but also an opportunity to achieve the goals of the war.

Sources said that special forces infiltrated civilian clothes in aid trucks, but they were discovered, and violent clashes broke out in the area.

When the military operation ended, the Israeli Occupation deliberately dropped tons of explosives on the Nuseirat camp.

According to the Israeli Occupation Forces, Noa Argamani, 25, Almog Meir Jan, 21, Andrey Kozlov, 27, and Shlomi Ziv, 40, all of whom were kidnapped from a music festival near Kibbutz Ra'im, were freed on October 7.

The family of the Israeli hostage Argamani confirmed, according to the Hebrew Channel 13, that she was with two other hostages before they were killed in an Israeli raid near the place where they were staying.

On its part, Hamas said that 3 hostages, including an American citizen, were killed in the Israeli military operation in the Nuseirat camp.

With the Israeli Occupation's success in freeing 4 hostages, this operation will be the largest hostage liberation operation since October 7, but the bloodiest and most violent.

The first operation was to rescue soldier Ori Megidish, in late October, and then in early December, the Israeli Occupation Forces tried to rescue another hostage, but he was killed.

Last February, Luis Harr, 70, and Fernando Simon Marman, 61, were liberated from the city of Rafah in southern Gaza.

The New York Times said in a report that about 120 people are still detained in the Gaza Strip. The Israeli Occupation Forces has confirmed that at least 30 of them have been killed.

Earlier this month, the Israeli Occupation Forces informed the families of four hostages that they had been killed and that their bodies were being held by Hamas.

In May, the army recovered the bodies of nine hostages, and the families of captured Thai citizens were informed that their bodies were still being held in Gaza.

Tel Aviv celebrated the recent hostage-liberation operation, and Israeli media published some details, confirming that the force that carried out the operation faced strong resistance, which led to the killing of an Israeli officer.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a later statement: “We will not let up until we complete the mission and return home all the hostages - both those alive and dead.”

Netanyahu's message came at a sensitive time when the truce negotiations in Gaza and the exchange of hostages are witnessing great complications.

But Hamas considered that liberating the Israeli hostages would not change the strategic failure of the Israeli Occupation Forces, accusing the Israeli army of committing a horrific massacre against innocent civilians in the Nuseirat camp.

Hamas commented on the information about the United States’ participation in the operation carried out by the Israeli army in the Nuseirat camp, considering that this proves its complicity in the war crimes committed in the Gaza Strip, and its lack of interest in the lives of civilians.

The United States did not officially announce any participation, but a senior U.S. administration official told the Israeli Walla website that an American cell located in “Israel” helped in efforts to free the four hostages.

The Palestinian presidency held the American administration fully responsible for the Nuseirat massacre.

US Gift to Netanyahu

On June 8, the United Nations Special Rapporteur for the Occupied Palestinian Territories, Francesca Albanese, said that Israeli soldiers hid inside an aid truck to carry out an operation to recover 4 hostages in central Gaza.

Albanese said in a statement: “I am relieved that four hostages have been released, but this should not come at the expense of the killing and wounding of hundreds of Palestinians by Israel and allegedly foreign soldiers, while perfidiously hiding in an aid truck.”

Albanese accused “Israel” of using hostages to legitimize the killing and starvation of Palestinians in Gaza, noting that “Israel” has translated its premeditated intention to carry out genocide in Gaza into action, and this is crystal clear.

The head of the UN’s World Food Programme, Cindy McCain, said that distribution of humanitarian aid delivered via the pier into Gaza had halted after two WFP warehouses came under rocket fire.

The WFP’s regional office said it was temporarily pausing aid operations near the floating pier pending a security assessment for its staff and partners.

The UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, Martin Griffiths, said that the scenes of killing and destruction in the Nuseirat camp, following the Israeli operation, prove that every day that this war continues, it becomes more horrific.

The EU’s top diplomat, Josep Borrell, also condemned the massacre committed against civilians in the Nuseirat camp.

The Palestinian Red Crescent Society denounced the use of an aid truck by Israeli forces during the operation to recover 4 hostages in the Gaza Strip, considering it a war crime that could endanger the safety of relief workers.

On the other hand, Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz said that “Israel” categorically rejects the accusation of committing war crimes during the process of liberating the four detainees from the Nuseirat area in the central Gaza Strip.

He added: “We will continue to act with determination and strength, in accordance with our right to self-defense, until all hostages are released and Hamas is defeated.”

The Israeli Occupation Forces also said that its soldiers did not use any aid car or truck in Nuseirat.

Israeli Army Spokesman Avichay Adraee denied that the army used the American naval pier on the coast of Gaza to enter Nuseirat in any way.

At the same time, the US Central Command denied using the temporary naval pier in Gaza, or any of the equipment or elements contained therein, in the process of freeing Israeli detainees in the Gaza Strip.

“The pier, the equipment, the personnel all supporting that humanitarian effort had nothing to do with the IDF rescue operation,” Pentagon press Secretary U.S. Air Force Maj. Gen. Patrick Ryder told reporters. 

Immediately after the announcement of the liberation of the Israeli hostages, Barak Ravid, an Israeli journalist for the American website Axios, revealed Washington’s role in the operation.

An American official was quoted as saying that American special forces participated in rescuing the four Israeli detainees, through the so-called American military kidnapping cell in "Israel."

The New York Times confirmed on June 8, 2024, that Washington had provided intelligence information about the hostages before the rescue operation, according to American and Israeli officials.

An American official told the newspaper, “Intelligence collection and analysis teams from the U.S. and the UK are present in Israel throughout the war, to assist Israeli intelligence in collecting and analyzing information related to the hostages.”

A senior Pentagon official confirmed to the New York Times that commando forces on the ground are assisting in efforts to identify hostages, including Americans.

The Washington Post also confirmed on June 8, 2024, that U.S. intelligence helped rescue the Israelis, noting the role of a team of American employees stationed at the US Embassy in Jerusalem.

Political analyst Ahmad Ramadan suggested that “the brutal Nuseirat operation was a gift to Netanyahu so that he would accept the American deal that Joe Biden had offered earlier to recover the rest of the hostages.”

He stressed in a statement to Al-Estiklal that “the parties that supported the Israeli army in its operation, which are special forces and intelligence from three countries, with tanks, planes and spy satellites, justify this by saying that Netanyahu needs any victory in order to justify his acceptance of a ceasefire.”