Israel announced early Monday February 12 the release of two hostages held in Rafah, the final target of its offensive in the Gaza Strip, as part of a vast nighttime operation that left around a hundred Palestinians dead, according to the Hamas in power in this territory.
Fernando Simon Marman, 60, and Louis Har, 70, were freed during a nighttime operation in Rafah carried out jointly by the army, the Shin Beth (Internal Security) and the Israeli police, these services said, specifying that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other officials had followed the progress of this operation from the control room.
Israeli forces burst
“with explosives”
into a building in Rafah where these hostages were being held, the army said.
“A shooting took place and there was shooting from nearby buildings.
The Air Force carried out strikes.
Many terrorists were killed as well as one of our soldiers
,” said army spokesperson Daniel Hagari.
The Hamas Ministry of Health reported
"around 100 dead"
in an
"attack"
, including strikes against numerous buildings, in Rafah, a town at the southern tip of Gaza, where people are piling up 1.4 million Palestinians, according to the UN, the vast majority of whom have found refuge there in recent months to try to escape the fighting and bombings in the rest of the territory.
The two hostages, having Israeli and Argentinian nationality and kidnapped from Kibbutz Nir Yitzhak, were then airlifted to Sheba Hospital, located in Ramat Gan, near Tel-Aviv, where they “
are in a stable condition”
, assured Arnon Afek, the director of the establishment.
In a post on X, the office of Argentine President Javier Milei expressed
“gratitude”
to the Israeli army for the release of the hostages.
“Humanitarian disaster”
Benjamin Netanyahu ordered his army last week to prepare an offensive on Rafah, on the border with Egypt, where more than half of the population of Gaza is currently concentrated, causing concern in the international community.
Hamas warned on Sunday that such an offensive
would “torpedo”
any agreement for the release of hostages kidnapped during its October 7 attack on Israel, and whom it still holds in Gaza.
But
“we will continue to act in all possible ways to repatriate the hostages
,” declared Israeli President Issac Herzog.
US President Joe Biden urged the Israeli Prime Minister, during a telephone interview on Sunday, to
“guarantee the security”
of the Palestinian population before an offensive on Rafah.
Several states have warned of a
“humanitarian catastrophe”
in the event of an assault on the crowded city.
“Victory is within reach
,” Benjamin Netanyahu declared on the American channel ABC News, calling Rafah the
“last bastion”
of Hamas.
Israel will provide
“safe passage for the civilian population so that they can leave”
the city, he added, without specifying where civilians could take refuge.
"Nowhere to go"
“I don't know where we will go”
in the event of an offensive on Rafah, testified Farah Mohammad, who had fled the city of Gaza, in the north of the territory.
“There is no longer any place to escape
,” says this 39-year-old mother, who has lost all contact with her husband for a month.
"Under current conditions"
, Washington
"could not support a military operation in Rafah due to the density of the population"
, indicated a senior official of the American administration, stressing that the civilian population has
"nowhere where to go"
.
Around 1.7 million people, according to the UN, out of a total of 2.4 million inhabitants, have fled their homes since October 7 in the devastated Palestinian territory, besieged by Israel and plunged into a humanitarian crisis. major.
Many were displaced several times, fleeing further south as the fighting spread.
Rafah, which has become a gigantic encampment, is the last urban center where the Israeli army has not yet penetrated and the main entry point for humanitarian aid, insufficient to meet the needs of the population threatened in the middle of winter by the famine and epidemics.