One More Day 

Held captive by Hamas guards in a Gazan refugee camp, three Israelis were suddenly sprung from their cell in a lightning raid. Months later, with Hamas licking its wounds and talk of a hostage deal once more on the table, Shlomi Ziv and Almog Meir Jan relive their ordeal while praying for the release of those whose lives are hanging on by a thread

With fear and hunger their constant companions, the future promised only misery for the three Israeli hostages being held in a secret location in the heart of the Nuseirat refugee camp in the Gaza Strip.

Andrei Kozlov, Shlomi Ziv, and Almog Meir Jan were dozing on their mattresses on the floor of their darkened room on the Shabbos morning of June 8. After eight months in captivity, their captors had let down their guard somewhat — it was already mid-morning, and they were still sleeping in the next room.

Suddenly, the Israeli hostages heard shouting and gunfire. Instinctively, they tried to hide under their mattresses and blankets, in a vain attempt to shield themselves from the shrapnel. Then they heard a powerful explosion and a team of IDF soldiers burst into the house, led by the commander of the Yamam special forces unit, Arnon Zemora.

Zemora himself was struck by gunfire from the Hamas terrorists guarding the captives and mortally wounded, while additional Yamam soldiers burst in through the third-floor window. In one of the rooms, they found the three hostages — the gaunt, terrified captives cowering in the beams of the rescuers’ powerful flashlights, while the soldiers asked them to identify themselves by name.