Israel resuces two hostages in dramatic Gaza raid
Visit our website:
http://www.france24.com
Like us on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/FRANCE24.English
Follow us on Twitter:
https://twitter.com/France24_en
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00 First, Israeli airstrikes in Gaza ramped up overnight, targeting the city of Rafah.
00:05 According to authorities in the enclave, dozens of Palestinians have been killed in the operation.
00:10 Displaced residents have been in the southern part of Gaza for weeks and have nowhere to
00:14 go.
00:15 Israeli forces say they've managed to rescue two hostages, a 60- and 70-year-old from a
00:20 heavily guarded apartment in Rafah.
00:22 The pair are now at a hospital in Tel Aviv.
00:25 The rescue is one of the few successes in hostage release from Israel's operation in
00:30 Gaza so far.
00:31 We can now go across to Found24's Catherine Norris-Strand standing by at that hospital
00:35 in Tel Aviv.
00:36 Good afternoon, Catherine.
00:38 As I was speaking there, we were showing images of those very moving scenes at that hospital
00:43 in Tel Aviv.
00:45 Talk us through how exactly this operation took place in the early hours of Monday morning.
00:51 Hi there, Dena'ana.
00:54 Yes, this was a very dramatic nighttime rescue.
00:59 So the Israeli military says their special forces conducted a raid on an apartment building
01:04 right in the center of Rafah, starting in the very early hours of this Monday morning.
01:11 And then they blasted their way into that apartment building, rescued the two hostages,
01:17 aged 60 and 70, both Israeli-Argentinian nationals, and managed to get them out into an armored
01:25 vehicle before they were thrown back by helicopter to here, Sheba Hospital, on the outskirts
01:31 of Tel Aviv.
01:32 Now, they said they came under heavy fire while doing so and that the Israeli soldiers
01:37 were provided air cover.
01:39 And we know that there was extremely heavy bombing in Rafah last night.
01:43 Residents there reported, who we've been communicating with.
01:46 It felt like the air, the ground was shaking.
01:49 Some of them woke up thinking it was an earthquake.
01:51 Lots of panic there.
01:53 But the Israeli military says none of their soldiers were injured during this raid, one
01:57 of them slightly so.
01:59 The two men have been brought back.
02:01 They're receiving medical tests and getting rest in this hospital here behind me.
02:07 We managed to catch up with one of the family members of the hostage, Louis Haar, who's
02:12 aged 70.
02:13 We spoke to his son-in-law, who told us of their surprise and emotion on getting the
02:19 call that his father-in-law had been released.
02:22 Take a listen.
02:25 It was in the middle of the night.
02:26 We woke up from a phone call that really telling us, Fernando is here, Louis is here.
02:32 Please come to the hospital to meet and greet.
02:35 We were, what?
02:36 What are you talking about?
02:37 Yes, oh no, yes, please, they are here, they are with us, and they are safe.
02:41 So you really don't expect it.
02:43 Personally, would expect that they will come back to us in a negotiation agreement or so.
02:54 He was saying there that he felt happy, but not completely happy because there remain
02:59 more than 100 hostages in Gaza, 134 perhaps by the latest count, although Israel believes
03:08 that perhaps a third of those hostages have been killed.
03:12 But the family members here speaking out today saying they won't be completely happy until
03:17 all the hostages are brought home by military means or any other.
03:22 Catherine, as the person in that soundbite basically said, that they won't be happy until
03:28 all the hostages are released.
03:30 Clearly, pressure will continue to mount on the Prime Minister to strike a deal, potentially
03:35 bring those hostages home.
03:37 But Netanyahu is digging in his heels and says this is the way to achieve victory and
03:41 get those hostages back.
03:44 Right, Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli Prime Minister, of course, coming under a lot of
03:50 pressure from allies such as the US, the UK and other European countries, as well as criticism
03:56 from various Arab states not to push ahead with a full ground offensive into Rafa until
04:03 all the hostages have been able to evacuate, which would be a huge logistical feat.
04:09 Well, he took to Twitter, or his office did this morning, with a platform now known as
04:15 X, of course, and said that he welcomed the hostages home, but that their rescue showed
04:20 that it was through military pressure that Israel would win the war and bring all the
04:25 hostages home.
04:26 So, he was using this very dramatic rescue as perhaps proof that continuing to take the
04:33 battle to Hamas, continuing to fight on in Gaza despite all the controversy, is the best
04:39 way to end this war.
04:40 And he says, get the hostages home.