Israeli safety forces stated early Monday that they’d rescued two hostages who have been being held within the southern Gazan metropolis of Rafah, in one of many few examples of a profitable hostage rescue in Gaza because the begin of the struggle.

The hostages, Fernando Simon Marman, 60, and Louis Har, 70, have been present process assessments at a hospital in Tel Aviv and have been each in good situation, in accordance with a joint assertion from the Israeli army, the police and the home safety company, Shin Wager.

The assertion was issued across the identical time that Israel stated it had performed a “wave” of assaults on Rafah, a crowded metropolis on the border with Egypt the place greater than one million Palestinian refugees are anxiously anticipating an Israeli floor invasion. The army stated later that the strikes, which native information shops stated killed not less than a dozen folks, had been a diversion to allow its troopers to free the hostages.

Mr. Marman and Mr. Har have been amongst greater than 240 folks captured throughout the shock Oct. 7 raid on southern Israel by Hamas and different militant teams, which later prompted Israel to retaliate with huge airstrikes and a floor invasion in Gaza. The assertion stated the 2 males had been captured from Nir Yitzhak, close to the Gaza border. No different particulars have been instantly obtainable.

Israel has been discussing plans to ship troops into Rafah, at the same time as assist teams, the United Nations and america have warned that the folks sheltering there have nowhere to go. Egypt has to date refused to absorb Palestinian refugees.

About 100 of the hostages taken in October have been launched throughout a weeklong cease-fire final yr. Final week, The New York Instances reported that Israeli intelligence officers had concluded that not less than 30 of the remaining 136 hostages had died because the begin of the struggle. Earlier than Monday’s operation, Israeli forces had stated they rescued not less than one hostage.

Hostages’ households have been urgent Israel to prioritize negotiations for his or her launch. Final week, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu publicly rejected Hamas’s newest proposal of one other pause in preventing that might permit for among the hostages being held by the militants to be launched.

However Israeli officers have additionally signaled that their authorities was nonetheless open to negotiation, and Mr. Netanyahu stated in an interview televised on Sunday that his authorities was engaged on a plan to evacuate folks from Rafah.

Requested throughout the interview with ABC Information how lots of the remaining hostages have been nonetheless alive, Mr. Netanyahu stated, “Sufficient to warrant the sort of efforts that we’re doing.”

“We’re going to strive do our greatest to get all those that are alive again and, frankly, the our bodies of the useless,” he added.