TEL AVIV – Israeli army hailed the rescue of two hostages overnight Prosperitylocal authorities said the raid had killed dozens of people in crowds in the south Gaza strip A city sheltering more than 1 million internally displaced people.
The spokesman of the Palestinian Ministry of Health, Dr. Ashraf Al-Qudra, said that at least 67 people died as a result of the Israeli strikes. An NBC News crew that has been on the ground in Gaza since the start of the war described the explosion in Rafah’s Shabura camp as an astonishingly violent and deadly attack.
Israeli forces dramatically rescued 60-year-old Fernando Marman and 70-year-old Louis Hari in Rafah. Land attack on Rafah.
Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, the spokesman of the Israel Defense Forces, said that the Israeli forces recovered two Israelis captured during the Hamas attack on October 7 in a “complex” night operation “under fire in the center of Rafah”.
The operation included a “wave of strikes,” Hagari said, which helped “to allow the force to disengage” and strike Hamas operatives in the area.
According to an NBC News crew on the ground, the strikes caused widespread panic and chaos as first responders and crowds rushed the dead and wounded to a Kuwaiti hospital.
In video captured by an NBC News crew, mourners cradle loved ones wrapped in bloody shrouds and blankets, one man sobbing on top of another as he caresses her cheek. A child lies motionless and partially wrapped in a white shroud, his head covered in blood from a deep gash. A paramedic checks another girl’s heartbeat before nodding off as she carries the still child away.
The IDF confirmed that its forces carried out strikes in the Shabura region during the night.
Asked to comment on the number of people Gaza health officials said had been killed in the raid, Israel’s military said Monday morning it could not confirm statistics provided by Palestinian health authorities because it did not consider them “reliable.”
Hajari said Israeli forces had been preparing for the overnight operation “for some time” and that it was carried out based on highly sensitive intelligence.
An IDF spokesman described how special forces broke into a building “in the heart of Rafah” before placing Har and Marman, who were being held by armed Hamas militants, on the second floor.
According to him, a battle took place with “fierce shooting in several places at the same time”. According to him, the Israeli Air Force and the Southern Command fired from the air at the same time.
In a separate statement, the IDF, Israel Security Agency and Israel Police said both Har and Marma were in good health and had been transferred to the Sheba Tel-HaShomer Medical Center in Ramat Gan, near Tel Aviv, for examination.
Hospital officials confirmed to NBC News that two people were being treated there, while a photo released by Israeli officials showed them reuniting with their loved ones at the medical facility.
“Fernando and Luis – welcome home,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement Monday morning.
Meanwhile, Hamas condemned Israel’s operations in Rafah.
According to Palestinian health authorities, more than 28,000 people have been killed, more than 67,700 injured and thousands more missing and presumed dead as a result of Israel’s attack on Gaza.
And concerns have grown in recent days about plans to launch a ground assault on Rafah, where more than half of Gaza’s roughly 2.3 million people have sought refuge, after the Israeli military earlier declared the Egyptian border town a safe zone.