Israel planning more daring hostage raids
GAZA STRIP: Israelis welcomed the rescue of two Gaza hostages, while fears of a looming ground incursion grew among more than a million Palestinians trapped in the war-ravaged territory’s densely crowded far south.
The rare rescue mission under heavy airstrikes killed around 100 people in Rafah, according to the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip’s health ministry.
Fernando Simon Marman, 60, and Luis Har, 70, had been held captive by militants since Hamas’s October 7 attack that triggered the war.
They were freed amid an intense firefight and then airlifted to a hospital where a spokeswoman said “the signs of prolonged captivity … are evident”.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hailed “a perfect operation”, while the Palestinian foreign ministry said the deaths of dozens of Gazans during the operation amounted to a “massacre”.
Hamas militants seized about 250 foreign and Israeli captives from southern Israel on October 7, about 130 of whom Israel says are still held in Gaza including 29 who are presumed dead.
“Luckily for us, as a family, they were saved tonight,” said
Har’s son-in-law Idan Bejerano, praising the rescue of the two Argentinian-Israeli men.
“But I must say that the job is not done,” Mr Bejerano added, urging action to free the remaining hostages.
Israeli forces in Rafah blew open a locked door on the second floor of a building and “successfully rescued the abductees” after nearly 130 days in captivity, a spokesperson for Mr Netanyahu’s office said. Troops then came under fire “and a prolonged battle took place, during which dozens of Hamas targets were attacked from the air in order to allow the force to leave the building”, the spokesperson said.
Army spokesman Daniel Hagari said “many terrorists” had been killed. Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said the rescue mission proved “we can reach every location”, telling special forces “there will be more operations” soon.
Weeks of talks towards a ceasefire have brought no results yet, but a source close to the negotiations said plans were under way for a new meeting in Cairo on Tuesday.
The Hostages and Missing Families Forum campaign group warned that “time is running out for the remaining hostages”, urging the Israeli government to “exhaust every option to release them”.
With international mediators working towards a truce and a hostage-prisoner exchange, Mr Netanyahu said that only “continued military pressure, until complete victory, will result in the release of all our hostages”.
In Rafah, Palestinian residents stood among the large bomb craters and rubble left after the intense battle.
Resident Ibrahim Abu Jaber said he saw a building collapse, killing the “40 to 50 people – displaced people, children, elderly” inside. “What if the actual invasion took place?” he said. “I think the martyrs would be in the thousands.”
Mr Netanyahu has vowed to send troops into Rafah, where about 1.4 million homeless displaced Palestinians are struggling to survive.