Israel’s military said Merman and Har were both in “good medical condition.” They were transported via military helicopters to Sheba Tel Hashomer Medical Center in Israel, where the medical staff said their condition was “stable” and where they were reunited with their families.
“I salute our brave warriors for the bold action that led to their liberation,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement Monday. “Only the continuation of military pressure until complete victory will result in the release of all our abductees. We will not miss any opportunity to bring them home.”
Hamas said the overnight operation, conducted amid heavy bombing across Rafah, was part of “horrific massacres against defenseless civilians and displaced children, women and the elderly.”
At least 67 Palestinians, including women and children, were killed in the operation, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.
Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, an Israeli military spokesman, said the rescue mission, based on extensive military intelligence, began at 1:49 a.m., when special forces broke into a second-floor apartment in Rafah.
“The necessary preparations were made and we waited for conditions that would allow it to be executed,” Hagari said in a statement Monday morning.
Armed Hamas militants were guarding the men and were also spread throughout the building, he said. A minute later, he said, Israel carried out a series of airstrikes; Israeli soldiers shielded the hostages with their bodies as other troops exchanged heavy fire with Hamas fighters.
Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant were with Israel’s military chief as the raid unfolded. Two Israeli soldiers were killed in the fighting, the military said. In a visit Monday with the unit that carried out the operation, Netanyahu called it “one of the most successful rescue raids in the history of Israel. … A perfect operation that was perfectly executed.”
It was only the second successful rescue mission since the start of the ground incursion into Gaza in late October — on Oct. 30, the IDF rescued a female hostage. More than 100 hostages remain in Hamas captivity, in addition to 29 others who are believed to be dead, most of them killed during Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack on Israel, according to Israeli officials.
Maayan Sigal Koren, Merman’s niece, told Ynet, an Israeli news site, that her husband woke her up after receiving a call from the IDF at 3:10 a.m., notifying the family that her uncle had been freed.
Her husband, she said, “had to say it a few times until I believed it. … It was shock, shock.”
Many of the families of the hostages and the thousands of Israelis who have joined them in street protests have called on the government to agree to a deal with Hamas to exchange hostages for prisoners, believing it is the only way to guarantee the safety of their loved ones and questioning whether military operations are a realistic strategy on a larger scale.
“We commend the IDF soldiers who demonstrated strength and bravery to secure the release of the two hostages, and wish them all to return home safely and speedily,” said a statement Monday by the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, an umbrella organization representing most of the families.
But “time is running out” for the hostages that remain in Hamas captivity, they added. “The Israeli government must exhaust every option on the table to release them.”
Argentine President Javier Milei lauded the rescue operation Monday morning and said in a social media post that in a meeting with Netanyahu last week in Jerusalem, he requested “the release of every one of the Argentine hostages” and continued to “maintain his condemnation of Hamas terrorism.”
The operation came hours after Netanyahu spoke on the phone with President Biden, who warned that an Israeli ground incursion into Rafah without appropriate accommodations for the civilian population would be seen as unacceptable to the United States, according to a senior administration official who briefed reporters on the condition of anonymity under rules set by the White House.
On Monday, it remained unclear how the rescue — lasting about an hour and limited in its scope — would affect Israel’s broader plans for a large-scale ground incursion into Rafah, where it says Hamas’s top leaders are hiding, using the remaining hostages as shields.
“We are not far from the day when there will be more operations,” Gallant told Israeli troops Monday.
Egypt has reinforced its border, signaling that it would not accept an exodus of refugees fleeing the fighting. It has warned that an Israeli invasion of the area along its border could endanger the countries’ 1979 peace treaty that has for decades stabilized the region.
The rescue operation was carried out amid negotiations to return the hostages in exchange for the release of Palestinians held in Israeli prisons, as well as a halt in the fighting. Senior American, Egyptian and Qatari officials are expected to convene in Cairo on Tuesday; it is still unclear if Israel will send a delegation.
“This rescue absolutely improves Israel’s chances to secure a hostage release deal,” Miki Zohar, a minister from Netanyahu’s right-wing Likud party, told The Washington Post. “We also know that Hamas is very disturbed by our ability to enter Rafah.”
David Tsur, former head of Yamam, the special counterterrorism unit that was among the agencies involved in the overnight mission, said that because the talks have been so far unsuccessful, the Israeli army took advantage of the “very short window of opportunity” to free the hostages. But he said it will have consequences for future operations.
“This will definitely cause Hamas to enhance their security measures,” he said.
Karen DeYoung contributed to this report.
