Image caption: Anger is growing over the rising Palestinian casualties in Saturday's operation in and around Nuseira.
The Hamas-run Gaza Strip Health Ministry said four hostages were rescued but 274 people, including children and other civilians, were killed in the Israeli raid on the refugee camp.
On Saturday, Israeli forces, backed by air strikes, engaged in a fierce gun battle with Hamas in and around Nuseirat refugee camp, freeing the prisoners.
Noa Al-Ghamani, 26, Almog Meir Yan, 22, Andrei Kozlov, 27, and Shlomi Ziv, 41, who were kidnapped from the Nova music festival on October 7, have been deported to Israel.
The Israeli military estimates that fewer than 100 people were killed in the operation.
Article information Author: Thomas Mackintosh Role: BBC News Reporting from London 9 June 2024, 09:43 BST
Updated 5 hours ago
But if the latest figures from the Hamas-run Gaza Strip Health Ministry are confirmed, it is set to be one of the deadliest days of the conflict so far.
People living in densely populated areas described horror as they came under heavy bombardment and gunfire.
One man, Abdel Salam Darwish, told the BBC he was buying vegetables at a market when he heard fighter jets and gunfire overhead.
“Afterwards, people's bodies were scattered in pieces on the streets and the walls were stained with blood,” he said.
The hostages' return to their families sparked celebrations in Israel, and news of their release was also welcomed by world leaders, including U.S. President Joe Biden.
But the operation inside the Gaza Strip has drawn growing criticism over its heavy casualties, with European Union Deputy Secretary-General for Foreign Affairs Josep Borrell condemning it “in the strongest terms”.
“New reports of civilian massacres from Gaza are horrifying,” he wrote to X.
The Israeli minister said that instead of blaming Hamas for hiding behind civilians, the EU condemned Israel for saving its own people.
Images from the Nuseirat refugee camp area showed heavy shelling and people mourning their dead.
Two hospitals in the Gaza Strip, Al-Aqsa and Al-Awda, said they had counted a combined 70 bodies.
The Hamas-run Health Ministry released the names of 86 of the 274 Palestinians it said were killed during the two-hour operation.
Israeli military spokesman Daniel Hagari previously estimated that fewer than 100 people were killed in a “high-risk, complex mission” based on “precise intelligence”.
Defence Minister Yoav Galant said special forces operated “under heavy fire” while rescuing the hostages. One special forces officer was wounded and later died in hospital.
Image caption: Victims are said to still be buried under the rubble of the building after Saturday's attack.
Video taken in Gaza after the attack showed scenes of carnage.
Footage from Al-Aqsa hospital showed scores of seriously injured people lying on the ground, with blood-stained floors leaving barely any space for doctors to move between patients.
Other videos show newly infected people frequently being brought in by car or ambulance and taken into the building.
The director of Al Awda hospital in Nuseira told BBC Arabic that the number of deaths arriving at the hospital had been increasing throughout Saturday.
Dr. Marwan Abu Nasser also spoke about the lack of a morgue in the hospital to accommodate the bodies of those who were brought there.
Video caption: Dozens killed in Israeli Defense Forces hostage attack, mourned in Gaza
One man, whose family of more than 40 have been killed since the fighting began in October, told the BBC he was in his house when it came under attack.
“As soon as the children and women entered the house, the bombing happened and everyone inside was killed,” he said.
“There used to be about 30 people living in this house, then it grew to 50, then it was bombed. The only ones who survived were me, my father, my wife and a young man. We are the only ones out of the 50 who survived.”
The bloodshed on the ground prompted an unprecedented outpouring of criticism of Hamas from people in the Gaza Strip.
Hassan Omar, 37, lamented the unnecessary loss of life in the Israeli attack, telling the BBC: “For every Israeli hostage, 80 Palestinian prisoners could have been released without bloodshed. [that] That's a million times better than 100 deaths.
“My message to Hamas is that stopping losses is part of gains and we need to remove those who are controlling us from the hotels in Qatar.”
The hostage rescue comes amid efforts between Israel and Hamas to reach an agreement on a ceasefire and the release of the hostages.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is being urged to reach a deal but faces opposition from his far-right allies, who say military action is the only way to free the hostages.
Saturday's operation was Israel's most successful hostage rescue mission so far in the war and analysts say it could change the prime minister's mind as he comes under increasing pressure.
Following the military attack in Nuseira, Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh said Israel could not force the group to make its choice.
He said the group would not agree to a ceasefire unless security for Palestinians was guaranteed.
In an attack in southern Israel on October 7, Hamas killed about 1,200 people and took about 251 hostages.
Some 116 people remain in the Palestinian territories, of which the army says 41 have been killed.
Under the deal reached in November, Hamas released 105 hostages and about 240 Palestinian prisoners being held in Israeli prisons in exchange for a one-week ceasefire.
The Hamas-run Health Ministry said on Saturday that the death toll in Gaza now stands at 37,084.
