The "Life Exchange Rate" Of the Israel-Palestine Conflict Is On Full Display.
DOHA/JERUSALEM, Feb 12 (Reuters) - An Israeli rescue operation freed two Israeli-Argentine hostages held by Hamas militants in Rafah on Monday, but supporting airstrikes killed nearly 70 Palestinians in the southern Gaza city where about one million displaced civilians have sought refuge from months of bombardments.
The mission by the Israeli military, the Shin Bet security service and a special police unit freed Fernando Simon Marman, 60, and Louis Hare, 70, the military said. They were among 250 people seized during the Oct. 7 raid by Hamas militants that triggered Israel's war on Gaza.
More than four months on, much of the densely-populated strip of land on the Mediterranean is in ruins, with 28,340 Palestinians dead and 67,984 wounded, according to Gaza health officials, with many others believed to be buried under rubble.
The Israeli military says 31 hostages have died in that time, but Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Monday's rescue showed that military pressure should continue and he brushed aside international alarm at its plans for a ground assault on Rafah.
"Fernando and Louis, welcome home," he said, saluting the Israeli forces who rescued them. "Only continued military pressure, until total victory, will bring about the release of all of our hostages."
The Gaza health ministry said 67 Palestinians had been killed overnight and the number could rise as rescue operations were under way. A Reuters journalist at the scene saw a vast area of rubble where buildings, including a mosque, had been destroyed.
"I've been collecting my family's body parts since the morning, said Ibrahim Hassouna as a woman knelt over the body of a young child nearby. "I only recognised their toes or fingers."
An Israeli military spokesman said the hostages were being held on the second floor of a building that was breached with explosives during the raid amid heavy exchanges of gunfire with surrounding buildings.
"We've been working a long time on this operation," Lt Col. Richard Hecht said. "We were waiting for the right conditions."
[SNIP]
Hamas militants killed 1,200 people in southern Israel, in the Oct. 7 incursion that sparked the war, according to Israeli tallies. Israel said it had killed more than 12,000 Hamas militants and taken out three-quarters of its battalions, of which it said earlier that four were in Rafah.
So if we go by the raid: two Israelis is worth about seventy Palestinians (or, on is worth thirty-five). If we go by the tally since Oct 7th, one Israeli is worth ten Palestinians
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