Israeli military spokesman said hostages were being held on second floor of a building
\nGAZA
\nIsrael freed two Israeli-Argentinian hostages in Rafah on Monday under the cover of airstrikes which local health officials said killed 67 Palestinians and wounded dozens in the southern Gaza city, the last refuge of about a million displaced civilians.
\nA joint operation by the Israeli military, the domestic Shin Bet security service, and the Special Police Unit in Rafah freed Fernando Simon Marman, 60, and Louis Hare, 70, the military said.
\nThe two men were kidnapped by Hamas from Kibbutz Nir Yitzhak on October 7, the military said, among some 250 people whom Israel says were seized during the militant raid that triggered its war on Gaza.
\n\u201cWe\u2019ve been working a long time on this operation,\u201d Israeli military spokesman Lt Col. Richard Hecht said. \u201cWe were waiting for the right conditions.\u201d
\nThe hostages were being held on the second floor of a building that was breached with explosives during the raid, which saw heavy exchanges of gunfire with surrounding buildings, Hecht said. A photograph released to the media showed them in a hospital, sitting on a sofa alongside relatives.
\nThe Argentinian government thanked Israel for the rescue of the two men, who it said were dual nationals of Argentina.
\nIsrael\u2019s military said its air strikes had coincided with the raid to allow its forces to be extracted.
\nThe Gaza health ministry said 67 people had been killed and the number could rise as rescue operations were under way. A photograph from the scene showed a vast area of rubble where buildings had been destroyed.
\nPalestinians in Rafah said two mosques and several houses were hit in more than an hour of strikes by Israeli warplanes, tanks and ships, causing widespread panic among people who had been asleep.
\n\u201cIt was the worst night since we arrived in Rafah last month. Death was so near as shells and missiles landed 200 meters from our tent camp,\u201d said Gaza businessman Emad, a father of six, told Reuters using a chat app.
\nSome feared Israel had begun a long-feared ground offensive in the city, where more than a million people displaced by Israel\u2019s war on Hamas are sheltering with nowhere else to go.
\n\u201cEveryone said it was a surprise ground attack. My family and I said our last prayers,\u201d Emad said.
\nA relative of one of the hostages said he had seen both freed men in hospital and found them \u201ca bit frail, a bit thin, a bit pale\u201d but overall in good condition.
\nIdan Bejerano, the son-in-law of Hare, said that the hostages had both been sleeping when \u201cwithin a minute\u201d the commandos were in the building and covering them as they fought the captors. They were being treated in Israel\u2019s Sheba hospital, its director Prof Arnon Afek said.
\nHamas said the attack on Rafah was a continuation of a \u201cgenocidal war\u201d and forced displacement attempts Israel has waged against the Palestinian people. Israel\u2019s military assault on the Gaza Strip has killed more than 28,000 Palestinians in response to Hamas\u2019 October 7 raid into Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories along the strip that killed 1,200 Israeli settlers. At least 250 settlers were taken hostage in the attack.
\nAir strike kills 15 in Central Gaza
\nUS President Joe Biden told Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday that Israel should not start 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.
\nAid agencies say an assault on Rafah would be catastrophic. It is the last relatively safe place in an enclave devastated by Israel\u2019s military offensive.
\nEgypt has reinforced its border with the city, saying it fears Gazans will be pushed across, never to return.
\nAn Israeli official has said people will be evacuated further north but its forces are also active in central Gaza. Palestinian medics said 15 people had been killed in an airstrike in the central town of Deir Al-Balah. Palestinian father Emad said the world needed to act. \u201cThe whole world condemned Israel\u2019s plans to invade Rafah. They are destroying the city before they invade it, how is the world doing now? Only concerned?\u201d he said.
\nBiden and Netanyahu spoke for about 45 minutes, days after the US leader said Israel\u2019s military response in the Gaza Strip had been \u201cover the top\u201d and expressed grave concern over the rising civilian death toll in Gaza.
\nNetanyahu\u2019s office has said it had ordered the military to develop a plan to evacuate Rafah and destroy four Hamas battalions it says are deployed there.
\nNetanyahu said in an interview aired on Sunday that \u201cenough\u201d of the 132 remaining Israeli hostages held in Gaza were alive to justify Israel\u2019s war in the region.
\nHamas-run Aqsa Television on Sunday quoted a senior Hamas leader as saying any Israeli ground offensive in Rafah would \u201cblow up\u201d the hostage-exchange negotiations.
\nEgypt warned on Sunday of \u201cdire consequences\u201d of a potential Israeli military assault on Rafah.
\n\u201cEgypt called for the necessity of uniting all international and regional efforts to prevent the targeting of the Palestinian city of Rafah,\u201d its foreign ministry said in a statement.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Israeli military spokesman said hostages were being held on second floor of a building GAZA Israel freed two Israeli-Argentinian hostages in Rafah on Monday under the cover of airstrikes which 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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":386796,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-386769","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n