GAUZE: Israel freed two Israeli-Argentine hostages in Rafah on Monday under cover of airstrikes that local health officials said killed 67 Palestinians and wounded dozens in the southern Gaza city, the last refuge of about a million displaced civilians.
A joint operation by the Israeli army, domestic security services Shin Bet and special police forces in Rafah freed Fernando Simon Marman, 60, and Louis Hare, 70, the army said.
The two men were abducted by Hamas from Kibbutz Nir Yitzchak on October 7, the military said, among about 250 people Israel says were detained during the militant raid that sparked its war in Gaza.
“We have been working on this operation for a long time,” said Israeli army spokesman Lt. Col. Richard Hecht. “We were waiting for the right conditions.”
The hostages were being held on the second floor of the building, which was breached by explosives during the raid, which saw heavy firefights with nearby buildings, Hecht said. A photo released to the media showed them at the hospital, sitting on a couch next to relatives.
The Argentine government thanked Israel for rescuing the two men, who it said had dual Argentine citizenship.
Israel’s military said its airstrikes were timed to coincide with the airstrike to target its forces.
Gaza’s health ministry said 67 people were killed and the number could rise as rescue operations continue. Photos from the scene showed a large area of rubble where buildings were destroyed.
Palestinians in Rafah said two mosques and several houses were hit by more than an hour of strikes by Israeli warplanes, tanks and ships, causing widespread panic among people who were sleeping.
“It was the worst night since we arrived in Rafah last month. Death was so close that shells and bullets were falling 200 meters from our tent camp,” Gaza businessman Emad, a father of six, told Reuters via a chat app.
Some feared Israel had launched a long-feared ground offensive in the city, where more than a million people displaced by Israel’s war against Hamas are sheltering with nowhere to go.
“Everyone said it was a surprise ground attack. My family and I said our last prayers,” Emad said.
A relative of one of the hostages said he saw the two released men in hospital and found them to be “a little frail, a little thin, a little pale” but overall in good condition.
Idan Bejerano, Hare’s son-in-law, said the hostages were both asleep when “within a minute” commandos were in the building covering them as they struggled with their captors.
They were treated at Israel’s Sheba Hospital, said its director Professor Arnon Afek.
Hamas said the Rafah attack was a continuation of Israel’s “genocidal war” and forced displacement attempts against the Palestinian people.
An Israeli military assault on the Gaza Strip killed more than 28,000 Palestinians in response to an October 7 Hamas raid on Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories along the Strip that killed 1,200 Israeli settlers. At least 250 settlers were taken hostage in the attack.
Airstrike kills 15 in central Gaza
US President Joe Biden told Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday that Israel should not launch a military operation in Rafah without a credible plan to ensure the safety of the roughly 1 million people sheltering there, the White House said.
Aid agencies say an attack on Rafah would be catastrophic. It is the last relatively safe place in the enclave devastated by the Israeli military offensive.
Egypt has reinforced its border with the city, saying it fears Gazans will be pushed out and never return.
An Israeli official said people would be evacuated further north, but its forces were also active in central Gaza. Palestinian medics said 15 people were killed in the airstrike in the central city of Deir Al-Balah.
Palestinian father Emad said the world must act.
“The whole world has condemned Israel’s plans to invade Rafah. They will destroy the city before they invade it, how is the world now? Is it just concerned?” he said.
Biden and Netanyahu spoke for about 45 minutes, days after the US leader said Israel’s military response in the Gaza Strip was “excessive” and expressed grave concern over the rising civilian death toll in Gaza.
Netanyahu’s office said it had ordered the military to draw up a plan to evacuate Rafah and destroy four Hamas battalions allegedly stationed there.
Netanyahu said in an interview broadcast on Sunday that “enough” of the 132 remaining Israeli hostages held in Gaza were alive to justify Israel’s war in the region.
On Sunday, Hamas-run Aqsa TV quoted a senior Hamas leader as saying that any Israeli ground offensive in Rafah would “blow up” the hostage exchange negotiations.
Egypt warned on Sunday of the “dire consequences” of a potential Israeli military attack on Rafah.
“Egypt called for the need to unite all international and regional efforts to prevent attacks on the Palestinian city of Rafah,” its foreign ministry said in a statement.
