Israel says it has rescued two hostages from Rafah

Israeli security forces said early Monday they had rescued two hostages held in the southern Gaza city of Rafah.

The hostages, Fernando Simon Marman, 60, and Louis Har, 70, underwent tests at a Tel Aviv hospital and were both in good condition, according to a joint statement from the Israeli army, police and Shin domestic security service. Stake.

The statement was issued around the same time Israel said this was the case launched a 'wave' of attacks at Rafah, a busy city on the border with Egypt that is home to more than a million Palestinian refugees in anticipation of an Israeli ground invasion.

Mr Marman and Mr Har were among more than 240 people captured during the surprise attack of October 7 on southern Israel by Hamas and other militant groups, prompting Israel to later retaliate with massive airstrikes and a ground invasion of Gaza. The statement said the two men had been captured from Nir Yitzhak, near the Gaza border. Other details were not immediately available.

Israel has discussed plans to send troops to Rafah even after aid groups, the United Nations and the United States warned against it. the people sheltering there have nowhere to go. Egypt has done that so far refused to accept Palestinian refugees.

About 100 of the hostages captured in October were released last year during a weeklong ceasefire. Last week, The New York Times reports this that Israeli intelligence officers had concluded that at least 30 of the remaining 136 hostages had died since the start of the war. Before Monday's operation, Israeli forces had said they had at least made a rescue one hostage.

The hostages' families have pressured Israel to prioritize negotiations for their release. He made this public last week turned down Hamas's latest proposal for a new pause in the fighting that could allow the release of some of the hostages held by the militants.

But Israeli officials have also been noted that their government was still open to negotiations, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in an interview on television on Sunday that his government was working on a plan to evacuate people from Rafah.

When asked during the interview with ABC News how many of the remaining hostages were still alive, Mr. Netanyahu said: “Enough to justify the kind of efforts we are making.”

“We are going to do our best to get back all those who are still alive and, frankly, the bodies of the dead,” he added.