RAFA.- Israeli forces rescued two hostages early Monday in a raid on a guarded apartment in the southern Gaza Strip and removed the prisoners amid gunfire in a spectacular operation that was a small but significant success for Israel.
The hostage situation has shocked Israel and the rescue briefly cheered a country still reeling from the Hamas cross-border assault that sparked the war late last year. Israel has described Rafah — a city on the southern edge of the Gaza Strip to which 1.4 million Palestinians had fled to escape the fighting — as Hamas’s last remaining stronghold and has signaled that its ground offensive could reach soon to its streets.
An estimated 1,200 people, most of them civilians, were killed in the Hamas attack on October 7, and the militants kidnapped another 250, according to Israeli authorities.
Israel says about 100 hostages remain, after dozens were freed during a ceasefire in November. Hamas also has the remains of about 30 deceased who died either on October 7 or in captivity.
The government has made freeing captives a priority of its war, along with destroying Hamas’s military and governance capabilities. But as the war, now in its fifth month, drags on, his release remains elusive and divisions have emerged in Israel over how best to end its hardships.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has insisted that persistent military pressure will win their freedom, a position he reiterated on Monday, although other senior officials have objected and say a deal is the only way to free them.
spectacular assault
Special forces entered a second-floor apartment at 1:49 a.m. Monday, military spokesman Daniel Hagari said, accompanied a minute later by a series of airstrikes in the surrounding area. The hostages were guarded by armed Hamas members, and members of the rescue team covered the hostages with their bodies as an intense battle broke out in several places at once with many Hamas gunmen, he added.
The military identified the rescued hostages as Fernando Simon Marman, 60, and Louis Har, 70, kidnapped by Hamas militants at Kibbutz Nir Yizhak on October 7. Netanyahu’s office said they also had Argentine citizenship.
The hostages were evacuated to Sheba hospital in central Israel. According to reports, they were in good physical condition. They were only the second and third hostages to be rescued safely. A female soldier was rescued in November.
The rescue, which Hagari said was based on “accurate information,” was a moral boost for the Israelis, but a small step toward achieving the release of all captives. The remaining hostages are believed to be scattered and hiding in tunnels, probably in poor condition.
Har’s son-in-law, Idan Begerano, who saw the freed captives at the hospital, said they were both pale and thin, but communicated well and were not disoriented.
Begerano said that as soon as he saw him, Har had told him: “it’s your birthday today, mazal tov.” A video released by Netanyahu’s office showed a long, tearful hug between the men, clad in sweatshirts, and their relatives at the hospital.
Source: With information from AP
