At least 67 people were killed in air raids on the crowded town of Rafah, according to a statement from the Hamas-controlled territory’s health ministry.
The strikes that occurred before dawn on Monday hit 14 houses and three mosques in different neighborhoods of the city, south of the enclave, the Hamas government reported.
The Israeli army said it had “carried out a series of strikes against terrorist targets in the Shaboura region in the southern Gaza Strip.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told US channel ABC News that the Rafah operation would continue until Hamas was eliminated, adding that it would provide “safe passage” for civilians wishing to leave.
Asked to elaborate on where they might go, Netanyahu said: “You know, the areas that we cleared north of Rafah, there are many areas there. But we are developing a detailed plan.
The Israeli army announced Monday morning that two people had been rescued in Rafah after nearly 130 days of captivity.
In a statement, the military identified the two men as Fernando Simon Marman and Louis Har, saying they “were kidnapped by the terrorist organization Hamas on October 7 from Kibbutz Nir Yitzhak.” Both were in “good medical condition”, we add.
Around 1.4 million Palestinians have crowded into Rafah, many living in tents, while food, water and medicine become increasingly scarce.
The precarious humanitarian situation in Rafah has prompted aid groups and foreign governments, including Israel’s main ally, the United States, to express deep concern about the potentially disastrous consequences of expanding operations there.
