Army says four captives rescued in central Gaza raid are in ‘good condition’ as Palestinian officials report dozens of casualties in Israeli attack in same area.

The announcement about the raid in Nuseirat on Saturday came as Palestinian health officials said at least 210 people were killed and wounded in Israeli attacks on central Gaza. Local residents said Nuseirat had come under heavy Israeli drone and air raids, with children among those killed.

The army said the four captives – Noa Argamani, 25; Almog Meir Jan, 21; Andrey Kozlov, 27; and Shlomi Ziv; 40 – had been taken from a music festival during the attack Palestinian group Hamas led in southern Israel on October 7.

They were in “good medical condition” and were taken to hospital for medical checks following a “complex daytime operation” in Gaza’s Nuseirat. They were rescued in two separate locations in the heart of Nuseirat, it said. Israeli police said commander Arnon Zamora was killed in the operation.

Saturday’s operation was the largest recovery of alive captives since October 7, bringing the total of rescued captives to seven. Last week, the Israeli military had said that 120 captives remained in Gaza, including 41 that the army believed were dead.

Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said on Saturday that forces were “operating under heavy fire in the most complex urban environment in Gaza”.

He called the operation “one of the most heroic and extraordinary operations I have witnessed over the course of 47 years serving in Israel’s defense establishment”.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he had spoken with one of the rescued captives, telling him officials never forgot about them during 246 days of war.

None of the Israeli officials mentioned the dozens of Palestinians who were killed as part of the operation, said Al Jazeera’s Imran Khan, reporting from Jordan’s Amman because the Israeli government has banned Al Jazeera from reporting from Israel.

“The Israelis are simply not talking about the cost of this operation and they will not talk about it because they want to spin this as a success. Netanyahu was under tremendous amount of pressure, and the Hostages Families’ Forum is very clear that the ceasefire is the best and most sensible option to get all the captives that are still in Gaza back.”

The Ministry of Health in Gaza released images of bloodied patients, including children, lying in the corridors of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir el-Balah after the Israeli military claimed targeting “terrorist” infrastructure in what appeared to be part of the rescue operation.

In a statement, Gaza’s Government Media Office said the Israeli army had launched “an unprecedented brutal attack” on the Nuseirat refugee camp, “leaving dozens of martyrs and wounded in the streets” and continuing “its aggression against all areas of the Central Governorate [Deir el-Balah]”.

Senior Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri told Reuters news agency after the Israeli army’s announcement that “regaining four captives after nine months of fighting is a sign of failure not an achievement”.

Israeli attacks on Gaza since the start of the war have killed at least 36,801 people and wounded 83,680, with thousands more missing under the rubble and presumed dead. Israel launched its assault after the Hamas-led attack during which about 1,140 people were killed and some 240 taken captive.

Hamas released almost half the captives in return for the release by Israel of dozens of Palestinians held in Israeli jails, in a deal brokered by Qatar and the United States that allowed for a brief truce in November.

For its part, the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, an Israeli group that has pressured the government to do more to return captives, hailed the rescue on Saturday as “heroic”.

However, they again called on Israeli leaders to honour their “commitment to bring back all 120 hostages still held by Hamas”.