In the rescue of the Israeli hostages, minutes made the difference
When the four Israelis woke up in Gaza on Saturday, they had been held hostage by Hamas for 245 days. The buildings where they were held, two low-rise concrete apartment buildings, looked a lot like other nearby residences in a civilian neighborhood full of Palestinian families.Within hours, the prisoners, three men and one woman, would be reunited with their families, the result of a risky and long-planned rescue operation in which the full might of the Israeli army would be used to devastating effect .“I'm so emotional,” Israeli Noa Argamani, 26, told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu by phone after his release. “It's been so long since I heard Hebrew.”The rescue operation in Nuseirat involved hundreds of intelligence officers and two commando teams simultaneously raidi...