A daring rescue mission in broad daylight

at Canberra Airport. His resignation is effective immediately and he'll be replaced by board member Katherine West on Sunday afternoon. Mister Costello thanked the board for its support during a tumultuous few weeks for the media company. You can read that story right now at the Australian dot com dot AU. A body has been found on the Greek Island see Me, where a major search is underway for British TV doctor

Michael Moseley. The remains were found by occupants of a private boat on the Rocky coastline near an intricate cave system known as the Abyss. An umbrella was also discovered nearby. Local police believe the body belongs to Moseley, who disappeared during a walk on Wednesday afternoon. CCTV captured footage of

Moseley carrying an umbrella before he vanished. Israeli troops pulled off a daring rescue mission over the weekend, reuniting four people snatched by Hamas on October seven with their families in Israel. In today's episode, The Australian's Foreign editor Greg Sheridan unpacks what this means for the Middle East and hopes of a permanency's fire deal between Israel and Hamas.

in Gaza's Al Nuserat region. It's the third largest refugee camp in the Palestinian territories, and its teeming with civilians displaced by the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Harmas militant group. Raiding the buildings separately would mean certain death for hostage held in whichever one Israeli forces struck. Second, if it was going to work, it had to happen

swiftly and simultaneously. Shortly before midday on Saturday, the israel military's chief of staff, Hertzi Helevi, gave the order it was time to go. Palestinians described their fear and confusion as bombs rained down, a strike designed to divert attention away from the rescue. After a brief gunfight in one of the buildings and a counter attack by her Mass fighters in the streets of Nuserat, one of the Israeli commanders sent word via radio, we had the diamonds in

our hands. The four hostages were whisked away to a nearby beach and loaded into helicopters that would take them finally home to Israel. The Israelis rescued in the broad Daylight mission were all snatched from the No over At music festival on October seven, where hundreds more were massacred. They are Andre Koslov and Shlamiziv, who were both working as security guards at the festival and al Moghmiayan and Noah Agamani.

operation shows us quite a few things. It shows us not only that the Israeli commando is a very competent, but it shows us that as a matter of policy, Humas was keeping these innocent hostages in the middle of Palestinian sivilians. So it was exposing the Palestinians to massive danger intentionally as a part of its geo strategic purposes. Then another thing we know from this operation is that there was a very severe firefight, rocket propelled grenades launched

by Hamas terrorists and so forth against the Israelis. So that also tells us that Hummas terrorists are embedded there in the midst of a refugee camp, in the middle of civilians. This is the Hammas way of war, and this is what Hamas wants. They want Israel to be forced to go through the civilian population in order to get to them. I mean, the overwhelming moral responsibility for

all of the suffering in Gaza lies with Hammas. So it is at least possible that the symbolic power of this moment will lead to a change both within Israel and internationally. I guess the hardest thing to predict is the effect that this has on the dark, savage, nehilistic reasoning of Hummas's leadership itself. I mean, they could have had a ceasefire any time out of the last three months,

in a minute, you know. Time and again the Americans have said, and the British have said, the Israelis have come up with an extremely generous cease fire, and all we've got to do is get how Mus to agree. But the world astoundingly doesn't put Hamas under much pressure to do this, and Hummus's Arab inelocutors are very ineffective and putting them under any pressure. And I think it's a tribute to the nihilism and savagery of Hummas that it wants this situation to persist because it sees Israel

continuing to be criticized and damaged internationally. The party standing in the way of a ceasefire. It's been this way for months is Hummas. Because Hummas likes this situation. It wants all this suffering because it's doing Israel damage in

terms of its international reputation. But I think today you just focus on the wonderful news that for completely innocent people who were subject to terror and torture and just hideous cruelty by the world's most to pray of terrorists, freedom rescued and back with their families.

three phase solution on Israel's behalf. He said it would include the withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza, the exchange of israel hostages for Palestinian prisoners held in Israel, and the repatriation of hostages killed during the conflict, an increase in humanitarian aid, and a permanent ceasefire.

Hummas and Israel as being equal roadblocks to a ceasefire. Now, I do think there is something dysfunctional about Netnyahu's position at the moment, and those two right wing ministers are grubs, and it'd been much better for Israel and all of its friends all around the world if they weren't in the government. But I don't think any Israeli prime minister would have handled this conflict up to now much differently

from the way it's been handled now. And you know, the Alberzi government says Hummus must have no part whatsoever in Garza's future and all the hostages must be released, but then it tells Israel to stop fighting at the same time, well, how are you going to stop Hummas from having any role in Garza's future or get the Israeli hostages released? Israel leaves Garza permanently as Hummas is demanding it do so, the question is does Hummas have

any interest in a ceasefire or not? And the idea that the Israelis will just stop and leave Hummas completely in charge so that it can rebuild itself and launch new waves of terror assaults on Israel in the future, I mean that was never ago, that hasn't been offered by the Israelis at any point and wouldn't be offered by any Israeli Prime minister. At the same time, I'm critical of Netnyahu for not coming up with his own clear plan of how Garza should be run once the

fighting stops. So it's extraordinarily murky. But let's be absolutely clear about this. The object to a ceasefire is not Israel. The object to a ceasefire is Hummas.

We'll be back after this break. When Hamas launched its deadly attack on southern Israel on October seven, two hundred and fifty people, including infants, children and elderly people, were taken into unknown horror over the border. They were hidden in areas densely populated by Palestinian civilians, schools, hospitals, and apartment buildings like the ones featured at the top of this episode. Before Saturday's daring mission, about one hundred and

twenty hostages remained in captivity across Gaza. Dozens have died. Only seven in including the group of four rescued on the weekend, have been freed through military operations, but Israel's leaders say their nation's retaliation against Hamas in Gaza will continue. In a post made to the social media platform x formerly known as Twitter on Saturday, Defense Minister Joev Gallant said, we will keep fighting until one hundred and twenty hostages

are home. Their loved ones have urged the international community to maintain pressure on her Mass to accept the proposed deal and guarantee their release.

But as I say, the moral responsibility for this rests one hundred percent with Hummas, because there is no nation on the Earth, including Australia, which would not respond strongly if an October seven attack were carried out on it, and would not respond strongly in trying to get back as hostages. How long can they do it? Well, of course, until they get their hostages back. I mean, all of

violence could stop tomorrow if Hamas released the hostages. I don't think that the Israelis will give up on their hostages. And it's a very very difficult conflict to predict, because you see, Hammas doesn't really operate by rational or moral considerations at all. You're not dealing with a normal human actor.

I mean, Hamas is absolutely indifferent to the suffering of the Palestinian people, and therefore it takes actions against Israel which more or less necessitate a strong Israeli military response. I certainly believe, as the late Australian soldier Jim Molan concluded when he conducted inquiries, that Israel behaves as morally as any Western army would in these circumstances, tries hard

to reduce civilian casualties. But that's not to deny that the political campaign against Israelia has been tremendously effective, and it's been presented as a monster when it is a democratic state trying to protect its citizens against assault by the most depraved and savage and barbaric terrorists we've seen in modern times.