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ISRAEL-HAMAS WAR
🔴Live: More than 60 killed in strikes on Gaza’s Rafah, two Israeli hostages rescued
Two Israeli hostages were rescued overnight in the southern Gaza city of Rafah, where overnight bombardments killed at least 67 Palestinians, the Hamas-run health ministry said Monday. Israel is preparing for a ground incursion into the city, where hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinian civilians have sought refuge. Read our liveblog for the latest developments on the Israel-Hamas war.
Issued on: 12/02/2024 – 02:34
Modified: 12/02/2024 – 10:14
2 min
Palestinians look at destruction from the Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip in Rafah, February 12, 2024.
Palestinians look at destruction from the Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip in Rafah, February 12, 2024. © Hatem Ali, AP
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FRANCE 24
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Summary:
Israel on Monday announced the rescue of two hostages during a dramatic raid in the southern Gaza city of Rafah, storming a heavily guarded apartment and extracting the captives under fire. Hamas officials said that scores of Palestinians were killed in heavy overnight air strikes on Rafah as part of the rescue operation and as Israel prepares for an expected ground offensive.
The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza says at least 28,340 people have been killed and 67,984 wounded in Israeli strikes on the enclave since October 7, the vast majority women and children. Israeli officials say about 1,140 people were killed in the Hamas-led October 7 attacks in southern Israel. Militant fighters took some 250 hostages during the attack and 132 are still in Gaza, according to Israeli figures.
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3 hours ago
Health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza says war death toll at 28,340
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WHO chief continues to call for a ceasefire in Gaza
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5 hours ago
‘The Israeli PM has been insisting that Israel is going to conduct this incursion into Rafah’
The rescue operation of two hostages “was carried out in a very dramatic night in Rafah [with] incredibly intense bombardments reported there”, said FRANCE 24 senior reporter Catherine Norris Trent, reporting from Jerusalem. “We don’t have the definite death toll but it looks high – people are still being carried into hospitals”, she added.
Concerning the looming offensive, “Israeli Prime Minister [Binyamin Netanyahu] has been insisting that Israel is going to conduct this incursion into Rafah [. . .] but there has been criticism and words of caution coming from the US”, said Trent.
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5 hours ago
Rafah hospital officials say at least 50 bodies brought in after Israeli operation
Hospital officials in the southern Gaza town of Rafah say at least 50 people were killed in air strikes that accompanied an Israeli hostage rescue operation.
Dr. Marwan al-Hams, director of the Abu Youssef al-Najjar hospital, said Monday the dead included women and children. An Associated Press journalist also counted the bodies brought to hospital.
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6 hours ago
Yemen’s Houthi rebels suspected of missile attack targeting a ship in Bab el-Mandeb Strait
A ship came under attack by two missiles in the key Bab el-Mandeb Strait on Monday, the latest assault believed to have been carried out by Yemen’s Houthi rebels.
No one was wounded in the attack and the ship was continuing on its journey, the British military’s United Kingdom Trade Operations center said in a statement.
It wasn’t clear how much damage was done to the ship.
The Houthis did not immediately claim the attack, but it often takes the rebels several hours to acknowledge their assaults.
The rebels have been attacking ships in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden since November over Israel’s war on Hamas in the Gaza Strip. That has disrupted shipments through the waterways and the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, which connects them.
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7 hours ago
Hamas says Israeli attack on Rafah is continuation of forced displacement attempts against Palestinians
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9 hours ago
Israeli military says two hostages rescued in overnight operation in Gaza’s Rafah
The Israeli military announced early Monday that two hostages taken by Hamas during its October 7 attacks were rescued in an overnight operation in the southern Gaza city of Rafah.
The military said in a statement that “during a joint IDF (military), ISA (Shin Bet security agency), and Israel Police operation in Rafah, overnight, two Israeli hostages were rescued, Fernando Simon Marman (60) and Louis Har (70), who were kidnapped by the Hamas terrorist organization on October 7th from Kibbutz Nir Yitzhak”.
“They are both in good medical condition, and were transferred for medical examination at the Sheba Tel Hashomer hospital,” the statement added.
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10 hours ago
More than 50 people killed in Israeli strikes on Rafah, says Hamas health ministry
A series of Israeli air strikes on the southern Gaza town of Rafah on Monday killed at keast 52 people, according to the Hamas-ruled territory’s health ministry in an initial toll.
The strikes hit 14 houses and three mosques in different parts of Rafah, according to the Hamas government.
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10 hours ago
Israeli military says it conducted ‘series of strikes’ on southern Gaza that have concluded
The Israeli military said on Monday it had conducted a “series of strikes” on southern Gaza that have now “concluded,” without providing further details.
Local health officials and residents said two houses were bombed and that eight Palestinians were killed, with dozens others wounded, the officials said.
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10 hours ago
Hamas authorities say Israel hit Rafah with heavy air strikes
Heavy air strikes hit densely crowded Rafah in southern Gaza on Sunday night, killing at least seven people, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry.
AFP journalists and witnesses heard an intense series of strikes and saw smoke billowing above the city, which now hosts more than half of Gaza’s total population after they were displaced by the fighting.
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11 hours ago
Hamas warns Israeli invasion of Rafah will ‘torpedo’ hostage talks
Hamas warned Israel on Sunday that a ground offensive in Rafah, crowded with displaced Gazans, would imperil future hostage releases, while US President Joe Biden urged the protection of civilians in the besieged territory.
Rafah, on the border with Egypt, has remained the last refuge for Palestinians fleeing Israel’s relentless bombardment elsewhere in the Gaza Strip in its four-month war against Hamas, triggered by the group’s October 7 attack.
“Any attack by the occupation army on the city of Rafah would torpedo the exchange negotiations,” a Hamas leader told AFP on condition of anonymity.
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Yesterday’s key developments:
US President Joe Biden told Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu during a phone call on Sunday that Israel should not proceed with a military operation in the southern Gaza city of Rafah without a “credible and executable” plan to ensure the safety of the roughly 1 million people sheltering there, the White House said.
In an interview that aired Sunday, Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu reiterated his intention to extend Israel’s military operation against Hamas into Rafah, but promised “safe passage” to civilians displaced there – without giving any details.
Hamas warned Israel on Sunday that a ground offensive in Rafah would “torpedo” future hostage exchange negotiations.
Egypt warned on Sunday of “dire consequences” of a potential Israeli military assault on Rafah, which is near its border. Two Egyptian officials and a Western diplomat said Cairo threatened to suspend its peace treaty with Israel if troops are sent into the severely overcrowded city, the Associated Press reported.
Jordan’s King Abdullah II participated in an air drop of humanitarian aid to Gaza, state-owned Al Mamlaka broadcaster said on Sunday.
Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas arrived in Doha on Sunday for talks on securing a ceasefire in Gaza with the Qatari emir, whose country has been at the heart of mediation efforts and hosts political leaders of militant group Hamas.
(FRANCE 24 with AFP, AP, Reuters)
