The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said on Saturday that it had rescued four Israeli hostages in a complex daytime operation in Nuseirat, a refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip, after 246 days in captivity.
The hostages were named as Noa Argamani, 25, Almog Meir Jan, 21, Andrey Kozlov, 27 and Shlomi Ziv, 40.
The four are in "good medical condition" and were taken to hospital for further medical evaluations, the military said.
The three men and one woman were kidnapped by the Palestinian Hamas terrorist organization from the Nova music festival in southern Israel on October 7, the IDF said.
"We are overjoyed to have you back home," Israel Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said, according to his office. He spoke of a "heroic operation."
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Isaac Herzog spoke with Argamani by phone according to the Haaretz newspaper, which published a photo of the young woman smiling on a couch in a hospital room.
The IDF, together with the Israeli Security Agency and the Yamam police counter-terrorism unit, carried out the operation involving hundreds of troops on Saturday morning, the IDF said.
Palestinians are reporting dozens of deaths in Israeli army attacks on the Nuseirat refugee camp and the town of Deir al-Balah in the centre of the Gaza Strip.
Fifty people were killed and dozens more injured, according to Gaza medics. It was initially unclear whether the people were killed during the army operations to rescue the hostages.
It was also unclear whether those killed were civilians or Hamas militants.
According to the IDF, those kidnapped from Israel were freed from two different locations in the centre of Nuseirat.
The army had previously announced that it was attacking terrorist infrastructure in the area.
For Israel this has been the first bit of good news in weeks, as the country has come under severe international pressure over its operations in the Gaza Strip.
Right-wing leader Netanyahu has also faced domestic political divisions over his handling of the war.
The Times of Israel reported that centrist war cabinet minister Benny Gantz, who was expected to resign from the role in a speech on Saturday evening, cancelled his address after the news of the hostage rescue broke.
The war started on October 7 when Hamas launched a surprise attack in southern Israel, killing 1,200 and taking about 250 people as hostage.
In November there was a temporary ceasefire in which Hamas released more than 100 hostages in exchange for Israel releasing Palestinians held in Israeli jails.
There are believed to be about 120 hostages from Israel still in Gaza but it is unclear how many of them are still alive.
