The Marman-Har-Har rescue in the southern city of Rafah, Israel prompted by the Israeli assault on the last Hamas stronghold
In one of the few examples of a successful hostage rescue in Gaza since the start of the war, Israeli security forces said early Monday morning that they had freed two hostages in the southern Gazan city of Rafah.
The hostages, Fernando Simon Marman, 60 and Louis Har, 70, were undergoing tests at a hospital in Tel Aviv and were both in good condition, according to a joint statement from the Israeli military, the police and the Shin Bet.
Israeli officials say the military is still working on its plans for invading Rafah and that they have not yet been presented to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The anticipated assault on the last Hamas stronghold in Gaza is being characterized as defiant by some.
The raid on southern Israel by the Hamas group which resulted in the deaths of more than 200 people, including Mr. Marman and Mr. Har, prompted Israel to retaliate with huge airstrikes and a ground invasion in Gaza. The statement said the two men had been captured from Nir Yitzhak, near the Gaza border. There was no other information immediately available.
Asked during the interview with ABC News how many of the remaining hostages were still alive, Mr. Netanyahu said, “Enough to warrant the kind of efforts that we’re doing.”
Hostages’ families have been pressing Israel to prioritize negotiations for their release. He was against Hamas’s proposal of another pause in fighting that would allow for some of the hostages being held by the militants to be released.
The planning will likely take Israel’s military some time, Israeli officials and analysts said on Sunday. A major challenge for Israeli forces will be how to move civilians who have crowded into the city out of harm’s way. Many Gazans fled to Rafah on the instructions of the Israeli military to avoid the fighting farther north in Gaza, and a chorus of international leaders have expressed concerns that the people there have nowhere to go.
Israeli attacks during Ramadan and the need for a framework to prevent a conflict between Israel and Hamas, Israel’s top official said
The Biden administration has also raised concern over an assault coinciding with the Muslim holy fasting month of Ramadan, according to a report in Israeli media. An attack during Ramadan — which is expected to start March 10, though the timing depends on the sighting of the moon over Mecca — could be viewed as particularly provocativeto Muslims in the region and beyond.
“The operation in Rafah will happen,” Avi Dichter, a minister from Mr. Netanyahu’s conservative Likud party, told Israel’s public broadcaster, Kan, on Sunday. He said it will end the same way as in other places.
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This is the first time Biden has publicly cautioned Israel against its planned operation in Rafah. Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the U.S. ambassador to the UN, said in an interview with NPR that Israel’s military plan in Rafah could not proceed because of current conditions.
There are more than one million people in the Rafah area who need aid, and there are no places to go. They fled fighting in other parts of Gaza and sought refuge there.
The official said that Israeli officials had told them U.S. counterparts that “they wouldn’t contemplate an operation Without being able to get civilians out of there.
The senior administration official said the majority of the call between Biden and Netanyahu was dedicated to discussing the need to keep pushing for a potential hostage deal that would see Hamas release the remaining hostages in exchange for a pause in fighting.
The official said that while there is a framework proposal “pretty much … now in place … there’s certainly gaps that need to be closed. Some of them are significant.” The official said that there had been progress on the issue in the last few weeks.
Netanyahu rejects the Hamas-Staadi cease-fire plan: remarks on the status quo in the Gaza Strip
The remarks come days after Netanyahu rejected the cease-fire plan delivered by Hamas, and said it would have left Hamas in power of the Gaza Strip.