An “unpleasant” surprise from the Hamas movement to Israel with its announcement of the killing of a number of hostages during the Nuseirat operation.

Abu Ubaida, spokesman for the Al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of the Hamas movement, said that some hostages were killed during the Israeli army’s operation to free other hostages in the Nuseirat refugee camp and its surrounding areas in the central Gaza Strip on Saturday.

He added in a statement on his Telegram channel, “What Israel carried out in the Nuseirat area in the middle of the Gaza Strip is a complex war crime, and the first to be harmed by it were its prisoners.”

He continued, "The enemy was able, by committing horrific massacres, to free some of its prisoners, but at the same time it killed some of them during the operation."

Israeli forces rescued four hostages held since October in an operation in the central Gaza Strip today, while Hamas officials said that more than 200 Palestinians were killed in Israeli air strikes on the same area, in an operation described as “one "One of the bloodiest attacks in the war."

It is not yet clear whether the hostage rescue and the deadly Israeli attack were part of the same operation, but they occurred in Nuseirat, an area that has often witnessed battles and bombings during the eight-month-long war between Israel and Hamas.

Abu Ubaida said in his statement, “The operation will pose a great danger to the enemy prisoners, and will have a negative impact on their conditions and lives.”

Reuters quoted a Hamas official as saying, “Israel’s liberation of 4 hostages after 9 months is evidence of failure, not an achievement.”

He added: “We still maintain the largest number of detainees and are able to increase it.”

While Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Galant said that the special forces worked under heavy fire and in a complex urban environment when they rescued four hostages from Hamas in Gaza on Saturday.

Gallant added in a statement issued by his office, “Our forces demonstrated valiant courage as they operated under intense fire in the most complex urban environment in Gaza.”

He continued, “This is one of the most important, heroic and exceptional operations I have witnessed over the course of 47 years of service in the Israeli defense establishment.”