GAZA -- During its operation to release four hostages in the central Gaza Strip, the Israeli army had killed several other hostages held there, Hamas armed wing Al-Qassam Brigades said on Saturday.

In a statement, Al-Qassam denounced the Israeli military operation in the Nuseirat area in central Gaza as "a complex war crime," saying "the first to be harmed by it" were Israeli hostages.

"The operation will pose a great danger to the enemy's prisoners and will have a negative impact on their conditions and lives," Abu Obaida, spokesperson for Al-Qassam, said in the statement.

At least 210 Palestinians were killed and more than 400 others injured in Israeli airstrikes on Saturday in central Gaza, where the Israeli forces rescued four hostages kidnapped by Hamas into the strip last October.

The Israeli army, police, and intelligence body Shin Bet said in a joint statement that their fighters had attacked "a terrorist structure" in the region and freed four Israeli hostages.

It noted that the kidnapped persons were rescued alive from two separate areas in the heart of Nuseirat.

Following the rescue of the four, 120 Israeli hostages remain held in Gaza, including 43 feared dead, according to the Israeli army.

Israel's attacks on central Gaza are the latest development of the deadly conflict between Israel and Gaza-ruling Hamas which began on Oct. 7, 2023, after Hamas militants stormed southern Israel from Gaza in a surprise attack, killing around 1,200 people and taking about 250 hostages back to the Palestinian enclave.