Posted on 02/12/2024 6:15:33 AM PST by V_TWIN
The Israel Defense Forces said that Fernando Marman, 61, and Louis Har, 70, were in good condition after being rescued, following an operation that involved battles with Hamas terrorists and massive Israeli airstrikes in Rafah.
The pair had been abducted from Kibbutz Nir Yitzhak on the morning of October 7, when Hamas-led terrorists killed 1,200 people and took 253 hostages in a murderous rampage in southern Israel.
It was only the second such successful operation of its kind since October 7. The first was the rescue of soldier Ori Megidish in late October. In early December, the IDF attempted to rescue another hostage, but he was killed.
The joint operation by the police’s elite Yamam counterterrorism unit, the Shin Bet security agency, and IDF began at around 1 a.m. in Rafah, an area that Israeli forces had not yet maneuvered into during their ground offensive against the Hamas terror group.
In a morning press conference and an earlier update to military reporters on the operation, IDF Spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said Yamam officers arrived in Rafah at around 1 a.m. and “carried out a very complex action on the premises and the second floor where the hostages were held.”
“Reaching the target in the heart of Rafah was very complex,” Hagari said.
He said the forces breached the apartment with explosives at 1:49 a.m., killing the three terrorists guarding the hostages and “hugged and protected Louis and Fernando with their bodies.”
Fighting also broke out in several adjacent buildings, with massive airstrikes carried out against Hamas terrorists in the area of the rescue operation at 1:50 a.m., Hagari said.
(Excerpt) Read more at timesofisrael.com ...
Good for them!
I hope the remaining hostages don’t have to pay for that.
I put nothing past hamas in the way of retaliation by taking it out on others.
God, protect them all!!!!
Hmmm....... interesting. I had assumed the hostages were all imprisoned in the ever decreasing underground city.
I remember the two movies made about the Entebbe rescue in the 1970’s. Maybe the Israelis will make one about these rescues.
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