The NBC News reporter Freddie Clayton says that "by Sunday, joy in Israel was fading and giving way to the realities of a war that has dragged on for nine months."
Yossi Mekelberg, an associate fellow with the Middle East and North Africa Programme at Chatham House, told NBC News that the hostage rescue operation in Nuseirat "is actually a failure of the negotiations."
“Had there been a cease-fire, these hostages would already have been at home, and the civilians that were killed yesterday would be alive," Mekelberg said.
Mekelberg also criticized Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, accusing him of attempting to politicize the meeting with the released hostages.
United Nations Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese said in a statement that she was “Relieved that four hostages have been released" but that “it should not have come at the expense of Palestinians.”
“Israel has used hostages to legitimize killing, injuring, maiming, starving and traumatizing Palestinians in Gaza,” Albanese said.
NBC also quotes a statement from Hamas military spokesperson Abu Obaida, alleging that some Israeli hostages were killed as a result of the operation in Nuseirat. However, NBC News couldn't confirm this information.
NBC included "revised" data from Gaza’s Ministry of Health (without mentioning that it is a Hamas-affiliated organization), stating that during the IDF and special forces operation in Nuseirat on June 8, at least 270 Gazans were killed and 700 were injured.
The journalist mentioned that an NBC News crew was on the ground in Nuseirat at the time without specifying that it was a local operator filming for the media.
