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Israeli safety forces stated early Monday that that they had rescued two hostages who had been being held within the southern Gazan metropolis of Rafah, in one of many few examples of a profitable hostage rescue in Gaza for the reason that begin of the warfare.
The hostages, Fernando Simon Marman, 60, and Louis Har, 70, had been present process assessments at a hospital in Tel Aviv and had been each in good situation, in response to a joint assertion from the Israeli army, the police and the home safety company, Shin Guess.
“Fernando and Louis, welcome residence,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated in a press release. “I salute our courageous fighters for the daring motion that led to their launch.”
The army’s assertion concerning the hostage rescue was issued across the similar time that it stated it had performed a “wave” of assaults on Rafah, a crowded metropolis on the border with Egypt the place greater than 1,000,000 Palestinian refugees are anxiously anticipating an Israeli floor invasion. The army stated later that the strikes had been a diversion to allow its troopers to free the hostages. The Gazan well being ministry stated that the strikes had killed not less than 67 Palestinians.
Mr. Marman and Mr. Har had been amongst greater than 240 individuals captured in the course of the shock Oct. 7 raid on southern Israel by Hamas and different militant teams, which later prompted Israel to retaliate with huge airstrikes and a floor invasion in Gaza. The assertion stated the 2 males had been captured from Nir Yitzhak, close to the Gaza border. No different particulars had been instantly accessible.
Israel has been discussing plans to ship troops into Rafah, whilst help teams, the United Nations and the USA have warned that the individuals sheltering there have nowhere to go. Egypt has to date refused to absorb Palestinian refugees.
About 100 of the hostages taken in October had been launched throughout a weeklong cease-fire final November. Final week, The New York Instances reported that Israeli intelligence officers had concluded that not less than 30 of the remaining 136 hostages had died for the reason that begin of the warfare. Earlier than Monday’s operation, Israeli forces had stated they rescued not less than one hostage.
Hostages’ households have been urgent Israel to prioritize negotiations for his or her launch. Final week, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu publicly rejected Hamas’s newest proposal of one other pause in combating that will permit for a number of the hostages being held by the militants to be launched.
However Israeli officers have additionally signaled that their authorities was nonetheless open to negotiation, and Mr. Netanyahu stated in an interview televised on Sunday that his authorities was engaged on a plan to evacuate individuals from Rafah.
Requested in the course of the interview with ABC Information how lots of the remaining hostages had been nonetheless alive, Mr. Netanyahu stated, “Sufficient to warrant the type of efforts that we’re doing.”
“We’re going to strive do our greatest to get all those that are alive again and, frankly, the our bodies of the useless,” he added.
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