The Israeli army has said it has rescued two male hostages from captivity in the Gaza Strip – 128 days after they were kidnapped.
The two men were rescued from a residential building in the border town of Rafah during a raid that left at least seven people dead.
The military identified the two men as Fernando Simon Marman, 60, and Louis Har, 70, and said both were in good medical condition.
Both men were kidnapped by Hamas militants from Kibbutz Nir Yizhak during the October 7 cross-border attack that started the war between Israel and Hamas.
Lt. Col. Richard Hecht said the operation was based on “precise intelligence” and that the site had been monitored for “some time.”
The military identified the two men as Fernando Simon Marman, left, and Louis Har, right, and said both were in good medical condition.
This photo provided by the Israeli military shows an Israeli Air Force helicopter carrying the two hostages
Palestinians walk past a residential building destroyed in an Israeli attack in Rafah, Gaza Strip, Sunday, February 11, 2024
According to Hecht, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu joined Israel’s military chief and other top officials when the attack took place.
The hostages were held on the second floor of a building that was breached with an explosive charge during the raid, during which heavy gunfire occurred.
At the same time, an airstrike was carried out to withdraw the troops, he said.
The airstrikes caused widespread panic in Rafah as many people were asleep when the attacks began, residents contacted by Reuters said.
Israeli planes, tanks and ships took part in the attacks, which residents said hit two mosques and several houses.
The Israeli military said on Monday it had carried out a “series of attacks” on southern Gaza that have now “ended”, without providing further details.
Before previous attacks on Gaza cities, the Israeli army has ordered civilians to leave without drawing up a specific evacuation plan.
President Biden told Netanyahu on Sunday that Israel should not launch a military operation in Rafah without a credible plan to guarantee the safety of the roughly 1 million people sheltering there, the White House said.
Smoke rises during the Israeli bombardment of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on February 12, 2024
Joe Biden called on Israel not to ‘proceed’ with military action in southern Gaza without planning for evacuation of Palestinian civilians
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu faces mounting international warnings over his army’s planned offensive in Rafah amid the war with Hamas
Aid groups say an attack on Rafah would be catastrophic. It is the last relatively safe place in an enclave devastated by Israel’s military offensive.
Biden and Netanyahu spoke for about 45 minutes, days after the US leader said Israel’s military response in the Gaza Strip was “overblown.”
Netanyahu’s office has said it has ordered the army to develop a plan to evacuate Rafah and destroy four Hamas battalions it says are deployed there.
Hamas militants killed an estimated 1,200 people and kidnapped 250 others in the October 7 attack that sparked the war.
More than 28,000 Palestinians have been killed in an Israeli air and ground offensive, according to local health officials.
More than a hundred hostages were released during a ceasefire in November. Israel says about 100 hostages remain in Hamas captivity.
Netanyahu said in an interview on Sunday that “enough” of the 132 remaining Israeli hostages in Gaza were still alive to justify Israel’s war in the region.
Hamas-run Aqsa Television on Sunday quoted a senior Hamas leader as saying that any Israeli ground offensive in Rafah would “blow up” the hostage negotiations.
Egypt warned on Sunday of the “serious consequences” of a possible Israeli military attack on Rafah, which is close to the border.
“Egypt called for the need to unite all international and regional efforts to prevent the Palestinian city of Rafah from being attacked,” the Foreign Ministry added in a statement.