Rescued hostages were held captive in civilian home - report

The IDF has now confirmed that three freed Israeli hostages, Almog Meir Jan, Andrey Kozlov, and Shlomi Ziv, were held captive in the family home of Gazan "civilians," a report said on Sunday.

Rami Abdul, the chairman of the Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor, said that the organization's initial evidence showed the Israeli special forces used a ladder to enter the home of Dr. Ahmed Al-Jamal and his family.

Several of the family members were killed during the operation including 36-year-old journalist Abdullah Al-Jamal. 

According to the Quds news agency, Al-Jamal was also identified as a staff writer for the U.S. outlet The Palestine Chronicle and the IDF found evidence of his contribution to Al Jazeera. Al-Jamal's wife was also killed during the rescue mission.

Meanwhile, Imran Khan, a senior correspondent on Al Jazeera's English channel published an Instagram post distancing the network from Al-Jamal, saying he was a freelancer in the past. Khan wrote, "The individual in question who was killed in the raid along with his family was, at one point, a freelance journalist. He has never worked for Al Jazeera Arabic or English."

The operation, during which Noa Argamani was also rescued from a separate location, has drawn condemnation for the high alleged death toll on the Palestinian side. However, these criticisms fail to address the responsibility of holding captives in populated areas deep inside Gaza's residential areas. Hamas allegedly paid civilian families to hold Israeli hostages.

The organization also called for an investigation into claims that the Israeli forces used the U.S. humanitarian aid pier to enter. This claim has been vehemently denied by both the U.S. and Israel.

In response to this allegation, Palestinians have said they would boycott aid that was transferred via the pier, which only returned to operation this weekend after bad weather put it out of order in late May.