When Hostages Come Home | The Free Press

The two teams worked simultaneously to extract the hostages, for fear that the noise from one operation would set off an alert about the other. The team that rescued Noa was able to neutralize the Hamas guards in the home of the Palestinian family who had been keeping her captive and get her out to the extraction point by the sea on the other side of Nuseirat. The second team ran into trouble, and the resulting firefight drew the attention of Hamas operatives in the area as they tried to get the hostages out. The rescue team went through three vehicles trying to escape with the three male hostages: the first truck took too much gunfire, the second armored vehicle broke down after being hit, and the third finally cleared the team and the hostages to the beach. 

But that team s commander, Arnon Zamora, was critically wounded when he burst into the apartment holding the three male hostages, and later died of his wounds. Zamora, a 36-year-old father of two, has been fighting in this war since October 7, when he led a battle against Hamas terrorists near the community of Yad Mordechai by the Gaza Strip, preventing them from entering that kibbutz. Even after that battle was won, he moved on to fight at the Nahal Oz army base and then to Kibbutz Be eri, two sites of the most violent attacks during the massacre. 

This past Memorial Day in Israel, Zamora sent a message of encouragement to his team and then immediately texted all their wives as well: We wouldn t be able to tie our shoes without you. You are the ones who sacrifice, you are the ones who solve our problems and you are the ones who support us when we fall. I love you too.  

The rescue mission was originally named Seeds of Summer. By sundown in Israel it had been renamed Operation Arnon to honor his memory. 

via www.thefp.com

Jessica Kasmer-Jacobs