Channel 12 journalist Amit Segal revealed new details on Monday evening about the rescue of IDF soldier Ori Magidish from the Gaza Strip last week.

According to the report, the rescue operation was launched as the IDF’s ground incursion into Gaza began, which helped to camouflage the rescue forces and enabled them to completely surprise the two terrorists holding Ori.

Ori was not being held in a tunnel but in a residential apartment in the Shati refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip, not far from Shifa Hospital, which hides Hamas’ main headquarters, located in a vast labyrinth of tunnels underneath the hospital.

An elite Shin Bet force of commandos dressed as Arabs entered the apartment, killed the terrorists, and whisked Magidish, who was thankfully unharmed during the operation, to safety.

According to the report, the Shin Bet operatives who rescued Magidish cried tears of joy.

Also, the Uvda investigative TV program last week quoted a security source that “the ground operation ‘awakened’ things inside Gaza. People move, things happen, and intelligence signals go off.”

Another senior official said: “It was clear that there was a window of opportunity – that if we didn’t act, Uri would no longer be in the place we identified, or action would not be possible.”

Overnight Motzei Shabbos, the IDF Chief of Staff and the head of the Shin Bet approved the operational plan, providing a green light to launch the rescue.

Magidish was held at least part of the time by Hamas, and she was held alone – apart from other female IDF soldiers who were abducted along with her.

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)