Two Hostages Return To Israel, But Several Others Killed

By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News

TEL AVIV/GAZA (Worthy News) – Hamas warned Thursday that Israeli hostages were killed after Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and the Jewish nation’s security service Shin Bet rescued two hostages deep in Gaza territory.

The group made the announcement as the two freed men, Fernando Simon Marman (61) and Louis Norbeto Har (70) arrived at Sheba Hospital in Tel Aviv following their rescue from Rafah in the Gaza Strip.

Both were kidnapped by “the Hamas terrorist organization” on October 7 from Israel’s Kibbutz Nir Yitzhak, Israeli sources said.

The two hostages were reportedly rescued as part of an operation that began with heavy IDF airstrikes in the Shabura district in central Rafah. The IDF said that the hostages were held on the second floor of a building in the heart of Rafah, surrounded by “armed terrorists.”

However, the Hamas-run health ministry and other officials claimed some 70 people were killed in the operation, including hostages, but those figures could not be checked independently.

The Hamas military wing, the al-Qassam Brigades, claimed that at least three hostages died in the Gaza Strip during Israel’s military operation. “The al-Qassam Brigades announce the killing of three of the eight Zionist detainees who we announced yesterday were seriously injured in the barbaric Zionist raids on the Gaza Strip,” the Al Qassam Brigades said on Hamas’s social media Telegram channel.

“We will postpone announcing the names and photos of the dead for days to come until the fate of the rest of the wounded becomes clear,” it added.

NAZI ACCUSATIONS

Hamas, deemed a terrorist organization by Israel and most of its allies, said the attack showed that Israel’s military could be compared with the German Nazis of World War Two.

The group made the accusations although it killed some 1,200 Israelis on October 7 in Israel in the worst recorded atrocities against Jews since the Holocaust, also known as Shoah.

“The Nazi occupation army’s attack on the city of Rafah last night, and its horrific massacres against defenseless civilians and helpless children, women, and elderly who have so far lost their lives over a hundred times, is considered a continuation of the people’s genocide and forced displacement attempts… being carried out against our Palestinian people,” Hamas wrote in a statement.

However, Israel has defended its actions.

It says Hamas is using civilians as human shields and has “terror tunnels” beneath civilian sites ranging from hospitals and schools to even the headquarters of the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees.

The Hamas-run health ministry claims more than 28,000 Palestinians have been killed, but those figures have been difficult to verify.

Israel says it has killed more than 10,000 Hamas fighters in its retaliation strikes after the October 7 attacks by Hamas, a date that became known as “Black Sabbath.”

Latest Worthy News