Dozens of people were killed overnight on Monday by Israeli airstrikes in the southern Gazan city of Rafah, reports CNN. Among the dead are children, according to the Palestine Red Crescent Society, a national humanitarian organization, which numbered fatalities as 100 but said the toll could rise further as emergency crews search through rubble. Many others suffer wounds and amputations.
“The Israeli military confirmed it conducted a ‘series of strikes’ on what it said were targets,” notes the report. Among the structures hit were two mosques and about a dozen homes.
The operation reportedly freed two Israeli-Argentine hostages held captive by Hamas. Louis Har and Fernando Marman were reunited with family Monday, having been kidnapped by Hamas gunmen on October 7.
In a video posted on YouTube, Israel Defense Forces (IDF) spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari praised his military but addressed the 134 hostages remaining in Gaza. “We are very determined to bring you back home, and will not miss any opportunity to bring you back home,” he said. He noted that Har and Marman were held in harsh conditions in the middle of a residential neighborhood “to try to prevent us from rescuing them. But we did.”
Despite the harsh conditions, IDF described Har and Marman as being “in good medical condition” in a post on X.
