Israel kills 100 civilians for 2 hostages

Tel Aviv announced that two captives had been rescued in a joint military, intelligence and police operation that also killed 100 Palestinians during parallel Israeli cover strikes conducted in Gaza’s Rafah

100 Palestinians were killed overnight in southern Gaza’s Rafah city yesterday, according to the enclave’s Health Ministry, as Israel carried out a series of airstrikes during an operation to rescue two captives.

Officials at Al-Najjar Hospital confirmed receiving at least 50 bodies, while an Associated Press (AP) journalist also counted the bodies brought to the hospital.

Dr. Marwan al-Hams, director of Al-Najjar Hospital, said the dead included women and children.

The Israeli military, in the meanwhile, announced early Monday morning that two captives had been rescued in a joint military, Shin Bet and police operation in Rafah after nearly 130 days in captivity.

In a statement, the army identified the two as Fernando Simon Marman and Louis Har, saying they were kidnapped by Hamas on Oct. 7 from Kibbutz Nir Yitzhak. Both were in good medical condition, it added.

“The military and the Shin Bet have been working on this operation for a long time ... and they waited until the conditions were right to carry it out,” Israeli army spokesperson Daniel Hagari said in a briefing.

A firefight broke out as the hostages were being taken out of the building they were held in, he added, with airstrikes targeting nearby buildings where shots were fired.

“Many ... were killed this evening during this operation and one of our fighters was slightly injured,” he said.

During the Oct. 7 incursion, Palestinian resistance members seized about 250 hostages, according to an Agence FrancePresse (AFP) tally based on official Israeli figures. Israel says around 130 are still in Gaza, though 29 are thought to be dead.

The Hamas incursion on southern Israel resulted in the deaths of about 1,160 people, according to an AFP tally of Israeli figures. Israel has responded with a relentless offensive in Gaza that the territory’s Health Ministry says has killed at least 28,176 people as of Sunday, mostly women and children.

Dozens of hostages were freed by Hamas during a one-week truce in November that also saw the release of more than 200 Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails.