Israel says it rescued two hostages from Rafah

The two men, aged 60 and 70, were in good condition and were undergoing examinations at a Tel Aviv hospital, Israeli authorities said.

Israeli security forces said Monday morning that they had rescued two hostages who were being held in the southern Gaza town of Rafah in one rare examples of successful hostage rescue in Gaza since the start of the war.

The hostages, Fernando Simon Marman, 60, and Louis Har, 70, were undergoing examinations at a hospital in Tel Aviv and were both in good condition. , according to a joint statement from the Israeli army, police and the internal security agency, the Shin Bet.

The statement was issued around at the same time that Israel said it carried out a "wave" of attacks on Rafah, a crowded town on the border with Egypt where more than a million Palestinian refugees eagerly await an Israeli ground invasion.

Mr. Marman and Mr. Har were among more than 240 people captured in the October 7 surprise raid on southern Israel by Hamas and other militant groups, which then prompted Israel to retaliate with massive airstrikes and a ground invasion of Gaza. The statement said the two men were captured in Nir Yitzhak, near the border with Gaza. No further details were immediately available.

Israel has discussed plans to send troops to Rafah, even as humanitarian groups, the United Nations and United States has warned that the population sheltering there has nowhere to go. Egypt has so far refused to take in Palestinian refugees.

About 100 of the hostages taken in October were freed last year in a one-week ceasefire. Last week, the New York Times reported that Israeli intelligence officials had concluded that at least 30 of the remaining 136 hostages had died since the war began. Before Monday's operation, Israeli forces said they had rescued at least one hostage.

The families of the hostages have pressured Israel to prioritize negotiations in view of their release. Last week, he publicly rejected Hamas' latest proposal for a new pause in fighting that would allow the release of some of the hostages held by the militants.

But Israeli officials also signaled that their government was still open to negotiation, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a television interview Sunday that his government was working on a plan to evacuate Rafah residents.

Asked during the ABC News interview how many remaining hostages were still alive, Mr Netanyahu replied: "Enough to justify the kind of efforts we are making." p>

“We will do our best to recover everyone who is alive and, frankly, the bodies of the dead,” he added.