This photo taken on June 8, 2024 shows a building and a vehicle damaged during Israeli attacks in the Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip. [Photo/Xinhua]

Israeli forces on Saturday rescued four hostages from the Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip, where, according to Palestinian sources, a bloody Israeli assault took place, killing at least 210 people and wounding more than 400 others.

Khalil Al-Dakran, director of al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir al-Balah in central Gaza, told Xinhua that many wounded Palestinians were sent to the hospital, with some of them later confirmed dead.

In a statement on Saturday, Hamas armed wing Al-Qassam Brigades denounced the Israeli assault in the Nuseirat area as "a complex war crime."

Ismail Haniyeh, head of the Hamas political bureau, also condemned the deadly Israeli strike, stressing that the Palestinian people "will not surrender, and the resistance will continue to defend their rights."

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said this hostage rescue operation had been planned for weeks and was jointly carried out by the army with the police's elite unit and the intelligence body Shin Bet, noting that a police officer was killed during the operation.

The rescued hostages were identified as Noa Argamani, 25, Shlomi Ziv, 40, Almog Meir Jan, 21, and Andrey Kozlov, 27, all of whom were abducted last October by Hamas while attending the Nova festival, an outdoor music event, in a rural area near the Gaza-Israel fence.

IDF spokesman Daniel Hagari said the four were located in two buildings at the heart of the Nuseirat camp.

In videos released by the government, Israeli President Isaac Herzog and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke with Argamani over the phone.

Following the rescue of the four, 120 Israeli hostages remain held in Gaza, including 43 feared dead, according to the Israeli army. "We will do everything to get them back," Hagari vowed.

In the wake of the operation, Israel's wartime cabinet minister, Benny Gantz, postponed his expected resignation announcement planned for Saturday evening.

On May 18, Gantz threatened to resign from Netanyahu's government on June 8 if the cabinet did not formulate an action plan to secure Gaza war goals, including the return of hostages and the elimination of Hamas.

In a statement on Saturday evening, Netanyahu urged Gantz not to step down, stressing, "We must remain united in the face of the great tasks ahead of us."

Gantz replied in a video, saying, "The challenges Israel faces remain as they were, and therefore, I say to the prime minister and the entire leadership, even today, we must look responsibly at how it is right and possible to continue from here."

Meanwhile, on Saturday night, tens of thousands of people demonstrated in Israel's Tel Aviv for the release of the remaining hostages and against the government.

The police declared the demonstration illegal and announced the arrest of 10 protestors on suspicion of violating public order, according to a police statement.

Earlier in the day, Israel's state-owned Kan TV news reported that the Israeli wartime cabinet approved a pilot plan presented by Defense Minister Yoav Gallant to replace the rule of Hamas in Gaza.

According to the plan, the Israeli army will "protect" several areas in northern Gaza and allow the presence of local leadership and the entry of humanitarian aid trucks.

The deadly conflict between Israel and Gaza-ruling Hamas has raged for eight months since its start on Oct. 7, 2023. It erupted as Israel launched a large offensive in Gaza after Hamas militants stormed southern Israel from Gaza in a surprise attack, killing around 1,200 people and taking about 250 hostages back to the Palestinian enclave.

The Palestinian death toll from the ongoing Israeli attacks in the enclave has risen to 36,801, with 83,680 people injured, as updated by the health authorities in Gaza on Saturday. 

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