GAZA: While Zionists have rejoiced at the safe return of four captives following a raid on Nuseirat camp, much of the world decried a “massacre” in which 274 people were killed and 698 wounded, according to Gaza health ministry numbers. Soon after the raid started around 11 am (0800 GMT) in Nuseirat’s busy market area, bombs were raining down and turning the neighborhood into “smoke and flames”, said Muhannad Thabet, a 35-year-old resident. “People were screaming - young and old, women and men,” he said by phone. “Everyone wanted to flee the place, but the bombing was intense and anyone who moved was at risk of being killed due to the heavy bombardment and gunfire.

“Houses were destroyed with their occupants inside. There were also large numbers of displaced people and shops, stalls and cars were on fire due to the bombing.”

The Zionist entity had sent in a special forces team of troops, police and Shin Bet operatives who simultaneously raided two buildings to extract the hostages.

Zionist military spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said that it was a “rescue operation” planned “weeks in advance”, with the entity even building models of the two apartments in preparation. EU’s top diplomat, Josep Borrell, condemned the raid. “In the strongest terms ... reports from Gaza of another massacre of civilians”. In a post on X, he called what occurred a “bloodbath”.

Eyewitnesses said the Zionist raid and retreat were covered by heavy air strikes as well as drone and tank fire. Several told AFP they had seen bodies in the streets, which AFP could not independently verify. As the fighting raged, the injured were taken to one of Gaza’s hospitals, medics said. “The hospital was filled with martyrs and injured, and it was impossible to accommodate such a large number within minutes,” said Dr Marwan Abu Nasser, an official at the Al-Awda health facility near the camp. “Of course, the hospital was under fire, and no one could move during the operation.”

Watching from his roof, another Palestinian man, Mohammed Moussa, said he was terrified when he caught a glimpse of a Zionist tank on the street below with artillery fire crashing down. “I should be dead,” marveled the 29-year-old after the raid was over, leaving much of the area covered in debris and heavy dust that coated the streets in grey.

Troops ‘disguised as Hamas’

Several witnesses reported seeing Zionist forces burst out of a refrigerated truck, dressed in the garb of Palestinian militants in an apparent bid to confuse their enemies, although this also could not be independently verified. Alaa al-Khatib, a displaced woman living in the camp, told AFP she was walking to a market when she saw people climbing out of a refrigerated truck and exiting a small white car. They then took out a ladder and began climbing into an upper floor of a nearby building, she said. “Moments later, I heard gunfire and explosions from the houses, neighborhoods and streets of the camp,” she said.

“I learnt that (Zionist) special forces had infiltrated the camp with Palestinian aid vehicles, all as a distraction to divert the attention of the people in the camp from the operation they came for, to liberate (Zionist) hostages.” Several other witnesses reported similar details to AFP, notably the presence of a refrigerated truck. “They were wearing clothes like Hamas and Islamic Jihad people, and some were masked,” said another local man, Mahmoud al-Assar, 27. Recalling the intensity of the raid that soon erupted and devastated several city blocks, Assar said that “what happened in the camp was like an earthquake”. — Agencies

A US official told the Axios news site that a “US cell stationed in (the Zionist entity” “supported” the Zionist military’s operation, with the New York Times reporting that the US provided “intelligence and other logistical support”. CNN reported that there were “no US boots on the ground,” adding that the cell has been in place since 7 October, supporting the entity with intelligence gathering.