They were all kidnapped from the Nova music festival during Palestinian militant group Hamas’ deadly raid on Israeli towns and villages near Gaza on October 7, an attack which precipitated the devastating war in the besieged Hamas-run enclave.
Hamas’ raid killed some 1,200 people, according to Israeli authorities, and Israel’s subsequent bombardment and invasion of Gaza has killed at least 36,801 Palestinians, according to an updated tally by the enclave’s health ministry on Saturday.
Palestinian militants took around 250 hostages back to Gaza on October 7. There are 116 now left in Gaza, according to Israeli tallies, including at least 40 whom Israeli authorities have declared dead.
Israeli News 12 broadcast footage of Argamani reunited with her father, smiling and embracing him. Video of Argamani’s kidnapping had circulated soon after she was dragged into Gaza by gunmen on October 7.
“I am so happy to be here. Thank you for everything, thank you for this moment,” a smiling Argamani said, sitting with her father in a hospital room.
Netanyahu on Saturday said Israel did not give into terrorism and that it was operating “creatively and bravely” to bring home the hostages held by Hamas in Gaza.
“We will not let up until we complete the mission and return home all the hostages – both those alive and dead,” he said.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Saturday praised the rescue as “an important sign of hope – in particular for the numerous Israeli families who continue to fear for those close to them. Four hostages are now free”, in a message on X, calling on Hamas to release all remaining hostages and the war to end.
News of the rescue also prompted Israel’s centrist war cabinet minister Benny Gantz to delay a statement he was due to give later on Saturday, in which he was widely expected to announce his resignation from Netanyahu’s emergency government. No new time was given for the address.
Last month, Gantz presented the conservative prime minister with a June 8 deadline to come up with a clear day-after strategy for Gaza.
The departure of Gantz’s centrist party would not pose an immediate threat to Netanyahu’s governing coalition, which controls 64 of parliament’s 120 seats, but it could have a serious impact nonetheless.
With Gantz gone, Netanyahu would lose the backing of a centrist bloc that has helped broaden support for the government in Israel and abroad.
Netanyahu would have to rely more heavily on the political backing of ultranationalist parties, whose leaders angered Washington even before the war and who have since called for a return to a complete Israeli occupation of Gaza.
This could increase strains already apparent in relations with chief ally the United States and intensify public pressure at home.
Gantz’s exit might also indicate limited prospects of success in the latest ceasefire efforts, according to political analysts, who say he would have been more likely to stay on if a deal appeared more probable.
Polls have shown Gantz, a former army commander and defence minister, to be the most formidable political rival to Netanyahu. He joined a unity government soon after October 7, saying he was putting aside political considerations in the national interest.
Earlier on Saturday, the Israeli military had said it was targeting militant infrastructure in al-Nuseirat, an unusual announcement because it does not normally report on its operations while they are still under way.
Al-Nuseirat, a historic Palestinian refugee camp, has been subjected to heavy Israeli bombing during the war and there also has been fierce ground fighting in its eastern areas.
Gaza’s health ministry said on Saturday that Israeli military assaults in al-Nuseirat had killed and wounded dozens of people, including women and children. The ministry did not say how many of the fatalities were combatants.
A health ministry official put the death toll at more than 50, saying emergency response teams were trying to ferry the dead and wounded to hospital in the nearby city of Deir al-Balah, but many bodies were still lying in the streets, including around a market district.
Local residents said al-Nuseirat had come under heavy Israeli drone and air strikes, and that those who were killed included women and children.
The Gaza war shows no signs of slowing even as the US presses for a ceasefire and a deal that would free the remaining hostages held by Hamas in exchange for releases of Palestinians imprisoned in Israel.
The war has destabilised the wider Middle East, drawing in Hamas’ main backer Iran and its heavily armed Lebanese ally Hezbollah, which Israeli officials are threatening to go to war with on Israel’s northern border.