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The two men, 60 and 70, were in good condition and were undergoing tests at a Tel Aviv hospital, the Israeli authorities said.
Israeli security forces said early Monday that they had rescued two hostages who were being held in the southern Gazan city of Rafah, in one of the few examples of a successful hostage rescue in Gaza since the start of the war.
The hostages, Fernando Simon Marman, 60, and Louis Har, 70, were undergoing tests at a hospital in Tel Aviv and were both in good condition, according to a joint statement from the Israeli military, the police and the domestic security agency, Shin Bet.
“Fernando and Louis, welcome home,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement. “I salute our brave fighters for the daring action that led to their release.”
Mr. Marman and Mr. Har, both Israeli-Argentine dual nationals, according to Mr. Netanyahu’s office, were among more than 240 people captured during the surprise Oct. 7 raid on southern Israel by Hamas and other militant groups. The Israeli military’s statement about the hostage rescue said that the two men had been captured from Nir Yitzhak, near the Gaza border.
President Javier Milei of Argentina — who last week made his first state visit to Israel as president — thanked the Israeli military for rescuing the men. In a statement on Monday, Mr. Milei’s office said that he had raised the subject of Argentine hostages in his meetings with Israeli leaders.
About 100 of the hostages taken in October were released during a weeklong cease-fire last November. Last week, The New York Times reported that Israeli intelligence officers had concluded that at least 30 of the remaining 136 hostages had died since the start of the war. Before Monday’s operation, Israeli forces had said they rescued at least one hostage.
Hostages’ families have been pressing Israel to prioritize negotiations for their release. Last week, Mr. Netanyahu publicly rejected Hamas’s latest proposal of another pause in fighting that would allow for some of the hostages being held by the militants to be released.
But Israeli officials have also signaled that their government was still open to negotiation, and Mr. Netanyahu said in an interview televised on Sunday that his government was working on a plan to evacuate people from Rafah.
Asked during the interview with ABC News how many of the remaining hostages were still alive, Mr. Netanyahu said, “Enough to warrant the kind of efforts that we’re doing.”
“We are going to try to do our best to get all those who are alive back and, frankly, the bodies of the dead,” he added.
Gabby Sobelman, Myra Noveck and Cassandra Vinograd contributed reporting.
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