JERUSALEM – Israel freed two Israeli-Argentinian hostages in Rafah on Feb 12 under the cover of air strikes.

The local authorities said the strikes killed 67 Palestinians and wounded dozens in the southern Gaza city. Rafah is the last refuge of about a million displaced civilians.

A joint operation by the Israeli military, the domestic Shin Bet security service and the Special Police Unit in Rafah freed Mr Fernando Simon Marman, 60, and Mr Louis Hare, 70, the Israeli military said.

They were among about 250 people that Israel says were abducted during an Oct 7 militant raid that triggered Israel’s war in Gaza. Israel’s retaliatory strikes have killed more than 28,000 people and left much of the densely populated strip of land on the Mediterranean in ruins.

The Israeli military says 31 hostages have since died, but Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the rescue on Feb 12 showed that military pressure should continue, brushing aside international alarm at its plans for a ground assault on Rafah.

“Fernando and Louis, welcome home,” he said, saluting the Israeli forces who rescued them. “Only continued military pressure, until total victory, will bring about the release of all of our hostages.”

The Gaza health ministry said 67 people had been killed, and the number could rise as rescue operations were under way.

A Reuters journalist at the scene saw a vast area of rubble where buildings, including a mosque, had been destroyed.

“Why did you kill my family while they were sleeping? They are children. I’ve been collecting my family’s body parts since the morning; they were in parts. I couldn’t recognise them; I recognised only their toes or fingers,” said Mr Ibrahim Hassouna as a woman knelt over the body of a young child nearby.

The hostages had been held on the second floor of a building that was breached with explosives during the raid, which saw heavy exchanges of gunfire with surrounding buildings, an Israeli military spokesman said.

“We’ve been working a long time on this operation,” Israeli military spokesman Richard Hecht said. “We were waiting for the right conditions.”

The Argentinian government thanked Israel for the rescue of the two men, who it said are dual nationals of Argentina. A photograph showed them in hospital, sitting on a sofa alongside relatives.

‘Last prayers’

Mr Hassouna said his relatives were killed at least 4km from the military operation.

“We were displaced from the north. We have nothing to do with anything. Why did you bomb us? Please justify.”

Israel’s military said the air strikes coincided with the raid to allow its forces to be extracted.

Palestinians in Rafah said two mosques and several houses were hit in more than an hour of strikes by Israeli warplanes, tanks and ships, causing widespread panic among people who had been asleep.

“Death was so near as shells and missiles landed 200m from our tent camp,” Gaza businessman Emad, a father of six, told Reuters using a chat app. He said it was the worst night of bombing since they arrived in Rafah in January.

Some feared that Israel had begun a long-expected ground offensive in the city, where more than a million people displaced by Israel’s war on Hamas are sheltering with nowhere to go.

“Everyone said it was a surprise ground attack. My family and I said our last prayers,” Mr Emad said.

A relative of one of the hostages said he had seen both freed men in hospital and found them “a bit frail, a bit thin, a bit pale” but overall in good condition.

Mr Idan Bejerano, Mr Hare’s son-in-law, said that the hostages had both been sleeping when, “within a minute”, the commandos were in the building and covering them as they fought the captors.

They were being treated in Israel’s Sheba hospital, its director, Professor Arnon Afek, said.

Hamas said the attack on Rafah was a continuation of a “genocidal war” and forced displacement attempts Israel has waged against the Palestinian people.

Hamas militants killed 1,200 people in southern Israel and abducted at least 250 in the Oct 7 attack, according to Israeli tallies. Israel says Hamas has four battalions in Rafah.

Dutch court blocks export of fighter jets to Israel

Many Western leaders have expressed alarm at Israel’s offensive while continuing to support the country.

However, a Dutch appeals court said it had blocked the export of F-35 fighter jet parts to Israel over a “clear risk of violations of international humanitarian law” in its operations in Gaza. Israel’s Defence Ministry declined comment on the decision.

US President Joe Biden told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Feb 11 that Israel should not launch a military operation in Rafah without a credible plan to ensure the safety of the roughly one million people sheltering there, the White House said.

Mr Biden said last week that Israel’s military response in the Gaza Strip had been “over the top”, and expressed grave concern over the rising civilian death toll in the Palestinian enclave.

Aid agencies say an assault on Rafah would be catastrophic. Egypt has reinforced its border with the city, saying that it fears Gazans will be pushed across, never to return.

An Israeli official has said people will be evacuated farther north, but its forces are also active in central Gaza. Palestinian medics said 15 people had been killed in an air strike in the central town of Deir Al-Balah.

On Feb 12, Israel called on UN relief agencies to help with its efforts to evacuate civilians from war zones ahead of its sweep of Rafah.

“We urge UN agencies to cooperate,” government spokesperson Eylon Levy said in a briefing. “Don’t say it can’t be done. Work with us to find a way.”

A senior Hamas leader said at the weekend that any Israeli ground offensive in Rafah would “blow up” hostage-exchange negotiations, which have been gathering pace.

Mr Netanyahu said in an interview aired on Feb 11 that “enough” of the 132 remaining Israeli hostages held in Gaza were alive to justify the fight. REUTERS