At least 37 Palestinians were killed in an Israeli attack on the southern Gaza city of Rafah, Gaza health officials said, and Israeli forces said they had released two hostages during a raid on the city by special forces.
An official at the Gaza Strip’s Hamas-run health ministry told Reuters that the bodies of 20 Palestinians were in Kuwait hospitals, 12 in European hospitals and five in Abu Yousef al-Najjar Hospital. Contained. According to residents, two mosques and several houses were bombed.
According to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), the two hostages were freed during a raid by special forces in the Rafah area in the southern Gaza Strip. They were taken to Sheba Hospital in central Israel, where doctors confirmed they were in “good condition,” the hospital said in a statement.
The Israel Defense Forces said in a telegram that the hostages were named Fernando Simon Marman, 60, and Louis Ha, 70, both of whom were taken from Kibbutz Nir Yitzhak in the October 7 Hamas attack. did.
Hamas said in a statement that Israel’s attack on Rafah was a continuation of its “genocidal war” and forced displacement efforts against the Palestinian people.
Heavy bombing caused widespread panic in Rafah as many people were asleep when the airstrikes began, according to Reuters, which contacted residents via online chat.
The Israeli military announced earlier Monday that it had carried out a “series of attacks” in southern Gaza that had since ended, but did not provide further details amid international concern over possible attacks on the southern city.
US President Joe Biden told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday that Israel will launch a military operation without a credible plan to ensure the safety of the approximately 1 million people sheltered in Rafah, the White House said. He said it shouldn’t be done.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appears determined to press ahead with a ground offensive on Rafah, Gaza’s southernmost town, but Israel insists it will provide safe passage for the 1.3 million Palestinian refugees sheltering there. .
Despite growing warnings from aid agencies and the international community that an attack on Rafah would be a disaster, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reiterated Israel’s intention to expand its military operations against Hamas. Hamas said a new advance on Rafah would “ruin” ongoing negotiations to return the hostages in exchange for a ceasefire.
“We’re going to do it,” the Israeli prime minister told ABC News in an interview that aired Sunday. “We intend to capture the remaining Hamas terrorist battalion in Rafah, its last stronghold, and we intend to do so.
“We will do this while providing safe passage for civilians to safely evacuate.”
Rafah has become a place of last resort for more than half of the area’s 2.3 million people, as Israeli forces have steadily expanded their ground operations south in the past four months in the war against Hamas.
It remains unclear where the thousands of people crammed into overcrowded makeshift tent camps near the Egyptian border will end up. In response to a question, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel was “developing a detailed plan.”
he said: “We are not complacent about this matter. This is part of the war effort to keep civilians out of danger. This is part of the effort to keep Hamas out of danger.”
The prime minister did not provide details or a timeline for the ground invasion of Rafah, which Israel had previously designated as a safe zone.
The southern city is Gaza’s last major population center still free from troops, despite being bombed almost daily. The IDF said it killed two “senior Hamas operatives” in an attack on Rafah on Saturday.
Israel’s war in Gaza, now in its fifth month, was sparked by an unprecedented Hamas attack on October 7 that left 1,200 people dead and another 250 taken hostage.
The Hamas-controlled Gaza Health Ministry said on Sunday that 28,176 Palestinians had been killed and 67,784 injured in Israeli attacks on Gaza since October 7. It said 112 Palestinians had been killed and 173 injured in the past 24 hours.
Netanyahu’s announcement on Friday that he had instructed the Israel Defense Forces and Ministry of Defense to draw up plans for troops to enter Rafah and evacuate civilians sparked international concern.
“The people of Gaza cannot disappear into thin air,” German Foreign Minister Annalena Verbock wrote on X on Saturday.
Reuters with Emine Thinmaz in Jerusalem
