How an Israeli hostage rescue that left scores of Palestinians dead unfolded | Visual Forensics

On the morning of June 8, Israeli commandos launched a raid that rescued four hostages who had been taken during Hamas’s attack on Oct. 7 and held inside Gaza for eight months. Before the operation, Israel had freed only three hostages by force. The successful rescue prompted celebrations inside Israel, but for Palestinians, it was one of the deadliest days of the war. The Gaza Health Ministry said that 274 Palestinians were killed during the operation. The Israeli military said that there were fewer than 100 casualties. This Washington Post video investigation reconstructs the raid in which Israel sought to free hostages — Noa Argamani, Shlomi Ziv, Almog Meir Jan and Andrey Kozlov — that Hamas had hidden in a crowded residential area. It shows how the Israeli military employed heavy airstrikes for nearly four hours, leaving women and children among the casualties. The Post identified at least 13 airstrikes across Nuseirat, a refugee camp in central Gaza, and at least 17 destroyed structures in the vic