Israel Rescues Two Hostages In Rafah.

We have been covering how Israel is preparing to capture the last remaining Hamas stronghold, where Hamas has four battalians, the city of Rafah on the Egyptian border. Hamas leadership surrounded by hostage human shields, is believed to have fled to Rafah, where they further could hide behind large numbers of Gazans who fled to Rafah from the north.

There is fierce international opposition to such an Israeli move, but as Vijeta covered earlier, Benjamin Netanyahu is vowing to push forward to “total victory”.

Tonight there were Israeli bombardments of the outskirts of Rafah.

But those bombardments may have been cover for a more important operation, the rescue of hostages. The Times of Israel reports:

In only the second such successful operation of its kind since October 7, the IDF announces it has managed to safely rescue two hostages from Hamas captivity in Gaza.

The two, Fernando Simon Marman (60) and Norberto Louis Har (70) were extracted in a joint operation by the IDF, Shin Bet and Israel Police in Rafah.

They were kidnapped from Kibbutz Nir Yitzhak on October 7.

Details:

• 2 hostages Louis Har and Fernando Marman rescued tonight in an operation from Rafah

• Their condition is determined to be good, they were transferred to Sheba Hospital

• Shayetet 13, Shin Bet, and other forces participated in the operation

• This was a hidden apartment in Rafah: “an operation that has been worked on for a long time, and until now the conditions were not there to carry it out”

• The hostages were kept in a hidden apartment on the second floor of the building

• The forces entered the building while the surrounding apartments full of armed terrorists. Air force stopped an attempt to attack the rescuers leaving the scene.

• An hour later: the rescue operation was over