The Israel Police on Monday published body camera footage of Yamam fighters raiding the apartment where Gaza hostages Shlomi Ziv, Andrey Kozlov, and Almog Meir Jan were being held captive and rescuing them on Monday.
In the video, Yamam soldiers engaged in numerous firefights before entering the building. Once inside, they asked the three hostages to identify themselves by name.
Afterward, another soldier exclaims to the hostages, “We’ve come to save you,” and gives Jan a fist bump to relax them.
The video ends with footage of Yamam soldiers providing cover fire while the hostages flee on foot.
The police provided the following statement along with the video:
“Yamam and Shin Bet operatives worked simultaneously at two locations to rescue the four hostages, engaging in fierce combat with the terrorists.
Attached is footage from helmet cameras capturing the moments of the rescue, where Yamam officers and Shin Bet (Israel Security Service) operatives storm the locations holding the hostages. The dramatic rescue amidst fighting and neutralization of the terrorists in the area is clearly visible.
On the same afternoon, the IDF published footage of the first moments when the hostages boarded the rescue helicopter and were taken to safety.
“The first is on board; second and third are with us,” Israel Air Force (IAF) soldiers can be heard saying in new IDF footage of the helicopter rescue of Ziv, Kozlov, and Jan on Saturday.
The first video is from the “Yasur” helicopter, in which the three hostages were airlifted out of Gaza.
In a second video, an IAF soldier asked the three former hostages, “Have you ever been in a helicopter?”
'Have you ever been in a helicopter?'
Then he asked, “First time?”
He said, “Look, it’s pretty simple, like a car.” He then points to Ben-Gurion Airport when he tells them, “You are going to Sheba Medical Center – I think you’ll get a warm welcome there.” The soldier then added, “This is the most important thing in the world.”
The three hostages in these videos were rescued along with Noa Argamani on Saturday in a joint operation carried out by the IDF, Shin Bet, and the police’s National Counterterrorism Unit Yamam in broad daylight.