Israeli special operations forces attacked a building in the southern Gaza town of Rafah early Monday for free two hostages held by Hamas, the army said, as Israel launched a wave of attacks overnight that killed dozens of Palestinians in Rafah, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.
The operations sparked elation in Israel, and grief and apprehension in the Gaza Strip, where more than a million Palestinians crowded into Rafah, fleeing their homes and seeking refuge from Israeli military actions further north. Palestinians feared that the raid – and the death toll that accompanied it – foreshadowed a more prolonged Israeli operation to capture Rafah.
The nighttime rescue operation marks only the second time Israeli forces have reported rescuing captives in Gaza since the war began in October. The fate of more than 100 hostages captured at the start of the war on October 7 has become one of the country’s highest priorities, along with the defeat of Hamas.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that Israeli ground forces would enter Rafah with the aim of eliminating Hamas battalions there, although the precise timetable was unclear. The prospect of street fighting inside the crowded city, surrounded by a closed Egyptian border, has sparked global concern about the risks faced by civilians who say they have nowhere to flee.
The release of the hostages showed Israel’s determination to continue its offensive despite criticism from the United States and other allies, and pressure to reduce civilian casualties and destruction. President Biden on Thursday called the Israeli campaign “exaggerated” and said the suffering of innocent people “must end.”
At 1:49 a.m. Monday, Israeli special forces soldiers burst into a building where the two hostages were being held, Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, the army’s chief spokesman, told a conference. press. About a minute later, Israeli forces fired on nearby buildings in an attempt to disrupt Hamas communications and allow soldiers to get the hostages out safely, he said. He also said Israeli military planes had fired on Hamas targets in the area.
Drone pictures Later released by the Israeli army appear to show a dozen Israeli soldiers entering a building on foot from a street lined with single-family houses with flat roofs. Other pictures showed an explosion in the nearby building, caused by what the Israeli military said was an Israeli strike.
Images taken by Palestinian photographers following the attack showed several badly damaged concrete buildings, with one reduced to rubble. The Palestinian images and the Israeli video appear to have been taken in the same location, next to several rows of tents.
Gaza’s health ministry said at least 67 people were killed overnight in Israeli strikes in Rafah. Media reported deadly attacks on two mosques in Rafah.
Neither the Israeli account nor the toll reported by the Gaza Health Ministry – which does not distinguish between civilian and combatant deaths – could be independently verified.
Ziad Obeid, a customs official who fled to Rafah, described being awakened at 2 a.m. by a barrage of explosions so intense it was “like it was the middle of the day, not the night.” He added: “It was a horrible night. »
The Israeli military said soldiers forced their way into a second-floor apartment to rescue the two hostages, Fernando Simon Marman, 60, and Louis Har, 70.
The military said the ensuing strikes were aimed at preventing Hamas commanders in the surrounding area from contacting the hostages’ guards and building “an operational picture” of the raid.
The army did not reveal how the commandos arrived at the house, but Israeli media reported that they forced a door with an explosive and that the hostages were evacuated by helicopter.
The operation was greeted with joy in Israel, where the fate of the hostages has exacerbated social divisions and trauma.
Some Israelis want their government to accept a deal that would free the remaining hostages in exchange for an end to the war, fearing that the Israeli offensive could endanger the captives.
The rescue was a major boost for Mr. Netanyahu, who said in a statement on Monday that “only continued military pressure, until total victory, will result in the release of all our hostages.”
Mr. Netanyahu, vowing to end Hamas’s control of Gaza, ignored warnings — from the United States, the United Nations, aid groups and others — that an advance on Rafah would be devastating for civilians and risk to exacerbate an already unfolding disaster, with residents lacking food, clean water and medicine.
Mr. Netanyahu has ordered the military to develop plans to evacuate civilians from Rafah, but aid groups and others say there is no place left to go. On Sunday, he promised to offer Palestinians safe passage to areas of northern Gaza before an invasion of Rafah, but gave no details.
Yan Zhuang, Gabby Sobelman And Andrés R. Martínez reports contributed.
