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Early on Monday, Israeli forces carried out a bold operation to rescue two hostages from a Hamas-held apartment in Rafah, a city on the southern border of the Gaza Strip. The operation was a rare success in Israel’s efforts to retrieve over 100 captives from the militant group. The raid was met with heavy resistance from Hamas gunmen and resulted in at least 50 Palestinian deaths, mostly women and children, according to local hospitals.
The hostages, Fernando Simon Marman, 60, and Louis Har, 70, were abducted by Hamas fighters from Kibbutz Nir Yizhak during the cross-border attack on Oct. 7 that sparked the ongoing war. They were the second and third hostages to be safely rescued, after a female soldier was freed in November.
Army spokesman Daniel Hagari said the special forces stormed the apartment at 1:49 a.m., while airstrikes hit nearby targets. He said the rescuers used their bodies to protect the hostages from the gunfire that erupted from multiple directions. The hostages were then taken to a secure location and flown to a hospital in central Israel, where they were reported to be in good health.
The aftermath
The raid was closely monitored by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other senior officials, who praised the intelligence and planning behind it. Netanyahu said the operation was a sign of Israel’s determination to bring back all the hostages, who are among the main objectives of the war.
However, the raid also drew criticism from the international community, especially after the White House revealed that President Joe Biden had cautioned Netanyahu against launching a ground assault on Rafah without a clear and feasible plan to spare civilians. Rafah is home to 1.4 million Palestinians who have fled the violence in other parts of Gaza and is considered the last bastion of Hamas in the coastal enclave.
The war, which began on Oct. 7, has killed over 28,000 Palestinians and displaced more than 80% of the population, according to local health officials. It has also caused a severe humanitarian crisis, with shortages of food, water, medicine and electricity. Israel has lost an estimated 1,200 people and 250 hostages in the initial Hamas attack. It has since launched a massive air and ground campaign to destroy Hamas’ military and political infrastructure.
More than 100 hostages were released during a weeklong cease-fire in November, but about 100 more remain in Hamas’ hands, along with the bodies of some 30 others who were either slain on Oct. 7 or perished in captivity. Three hostages were accidentally killed by the army after they managed to escape in December. The remaining hostages are believed to be hidden in tunnels under harsh conditions.
The rescue of Marman and Har was a rare moment of joy for Israelis, but also a reminder of the long and difficult road ahead to secure the freedom of all the captives. Har’s son-in-law, Idan Bergerano, told Israel’s Channel 13 TV that he and his wife met the freed hostages at the hospital. He said they were pale and thin, but alert and coherent. He said Har greeted him with a smile and said: “You have a birthday today, mazal tov.”
The situation of Palestinians in Rafah
Rafah, the southernmost city in the Gaza Strip, is facing a possible Israeli invasion that could displace more than a million Palestinians who have sought refuge there from the ongoing war. The city, which borders Egypt, has seen its population increase by five times as people fled from other parts of Gaza that have been heavily bombed by Israel. Many of them are living in tents and crowded shelters, with limited access to food, water and medical care.
On Monday morning, Israeli airstrikes hit several locations in Rafah, including the Kuwait Hospital, where some of the wounded were taken, according to an AP reporter in the city. The Israeli army said it targeted “terror sites in the Shaboura area” – a district in Rafah. Palestinian police said at least five officers were killed in the strikes, and hospital officials said at least 12 civilians died. It is unclear if the Israeli claims of hitting Hamas members are related to the Palestinian reports of casualties.
The diplomatic efforts
Israel wants to send troops to Rafah, a city in Gaza where many Palestinians have escaped the war, to destroy Hamas and free over 100 hostages. But US President Joe Biden and other countries are against this plan. Biden and Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu talked on the phone for 45 minutes on Sunday night about a possible cease-fire deal, which would swap hostages for prisoners and stop the fighting.
A US official said the deal was almost ready, but there were still some issues to solve. The official also said Israel’s attacks on Hamas in Khan Younis had made them more willing to agree. Netanyahu’s office did not say anything about the call. Hamas said any attack on Rafah would ruin the talks, which are helped by the US, Egypt and Qatar.
Biden and Netanyahu’s call happened after Egypt and a Western diplomat said Egypt would end its peace treaty with Israel if it attacked Rafah. The peace treaty, signed in 1979, has been important for the region’s stability for over 40 years. Egypt is worried that many Palestinian refugees would come to its border and never go back.
According to Gaza’s Health Ministry, 112 corpses were delivered to medical facilities in the last day from different parts of the region. The number of fatalities has reached 28,176 since the war began. The ministry does not separate combatants from non-combatants but claims that the majority of the victims were women and children.
