Israeli forces free captives from Gaza amid escalating tensions

Israelis welcomed the rescue of two hostages from war-ravaged Gaza, but fears of a looming ground incursion grew among more than a million Palestinians trapped in the territory's densely crowded far south.

With a dramatic overnight raid in Rafah city, Israeli special forces freed two captives in a rare rescue mission. They had been held by Hamas militants since the October 7 attack that triggered the war.

Fernando Simon Marman, 60, and Luis Har, 70, were freed amid an intense firefight and heavy airstrikes, then airlifted to a hospital where they were declared in good health.

The overnight bombing in Rafah killed around 100 people including children, said the health ministry of the Hamas-run Gaza Strip.

The Palestinian foreign ministry condemned what it called a "massacre" and accused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of "a mentality of revenge".

Netanyahu hailed the operation and said that only "continued military pressure, until complete victory, will result in the release of all our hostages".

Har's son-in-law Idan Bejerano praised the rescue of the Argentinian-Israeli men and described an emotional reunion in a hospital near Tel Aviv as "a lot of tears, hugs, not many words".

The bloodiest ever Gaza war began when Hamas launched an unprecedented attack on southern Israel on October 7 that resulted in the deaths of about 1,160 people, mostly civilians.

Militants also seized about 250 Israeli and foreign captives, around 130 of whom are still believed to be held in Gaza, although Israel presumes 29 of them are dead.

They are hemmed into an area near the Egyptian border as the battlefront moves ever closer from the north.

The operation there to free the hostages, after nearly 130