Middle East crisis live: two Israeli hostages freed amid Rafah strikes that officials say killed at least 37 Palestinians | Israel-Gaza war

US president Joe Biden is hosting Jordan’s King Abdullah II in Washington Monday.

The two leaders are expected to discuss the ongoing effort to free hostages held in Gaza, and growing concern over a possible Israeli military operation in the port city of Rafah, Associated Press reports.

It is the first meeting between the allies since three American troops were killed last month in a drone strike against a US base in Jordan. Biden blamed Iran-backed militias for the fatalities.

It was reported by Reuters earlier that King Abdullah participated in an airdrop of humanitarian aid to Gaza, according to the state-owned Al Mamlaka broadcaster.

A video showed the monarch in military gear on board a plane in the latest mission by the Jordanian air force to drop urgent medical supplies to field hospitals it runs in the war-torn territory. According to official media, the latest airdrop was on 6 February.

Israel carried out a special forces operation that freed two Israeli hostages in Rafah while striking the southern city.

Local health officials from the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry say airstrikes early on Monday killed 37 people and wounded dozens. The bombing caused widespread panic in Rafah as people were asleep when they started, according to residents contacted by Reuters using a chat app. Some feared Israel had begun its ground offensive into Rafah.

Israeli planes, tanks and ships took part in the strikes, with two mosques and several houses hit, according to residents.

A joint operation by the Israel Defence Force (IDF), Israel’s domestic Shin Bet Security Service and the Special Police Unit in Rafah freed Fernando Simon Marman, 60, and Louis Hare, 70, the Israeli military said.

The two men, who were kidnapped by Hamas from Nir Yitzhak kibbutz during the 7 October attacks were said to be in a good condition and taken to the Tel Hashomer Medical Complex, the military said.

“It was a very complex operation,” Israeli military spokesperson Lt Col. Richard Hecht said. “We’ve been working a long time on this operation. We were waiting for the right conditions,” reports Reuters.

The hostages were being held on the second floor of a building that was breached with an explosive charge during the raid, which saw heavy exchanges of gunfire with surrounding buildings, Hecht said.

At the same time, an airstrike was carried out to allow the forces to be extracted, he said.

US President Joe Biden told prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday that Israel should not launch a full military operation in Rafah without a credible plan to ensure the safety of the roughly 1 million people sheltering there, the White House said.

It’s 6:58am in Gaza and Tel Aviv. I’m Reged Ahmad and welcome to our latest blog on the continuing Middle East crisis, I’ll be with you for the next while.

Israel has carried out a special forces operation into Rafah that’s freed two Israeli hostages amid airstrikes, early on Monday. The airstrikes caused widespread panic in Rafah as many people were asleep when they started, Reuters reports.

Local health officials say 37 people were killed and dozens wounded in the southern Gaza city – which has been described as a ‘safe’ zone in the past.

More on that in a moment but first, here’s a summary of the main developments so far:

• Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, suggested that “enough” of the 130 or so remaining Israeli hostages held in Gaza are alive to justify Israel’s ongoing war in the region. Asked how many of the hostages are still alive, Netanyahu said “enough to warrant the kind of efforts that we’re doing”. “We’re going to try to do our best to get all those who are alive back and, frankly, also the bodies of the dead,” he said in an interview with ABC’s This Week programme. Israel has previously said it believes 31 of the 136 hostages being held in Gaza are dead.

• Separately, Netanyahu told Fox News Sunday he had not spoken to Joe Biden since the US president made remarks earlier this week about Israel’s military response in Gaza being “over the top”. The comments come as Israel faces growing international warnings over its planned offensive in Rafah.

• The UK’s foreign secretary, David Cameron, said he was “deeply concerned about the prospect of a military offensive in Rafah – over half of Gaza’s population are sheltering in the area”.

• Israeli strikes on the Gaza Strip over the past few days have killed two Israeli hostages and seriously injured eight others, Hamas’ armed-wing Al Qassam Brigades said over the group’s Telegram channel.

• Any Israeli ground offensive in Rafah on the Gaza border will “blow up” the hostage exchange negotiations, Hamas-run Aqsa television channel quoted a senior Hamas leader as saying.

• Israeli forces have discovered a tunnel network hundreds of metres long and running partly under the UN’s Relief and Works Agency for Palestine’s (UNRWA) Gaza headquarters, the military said, calling it new evidence of Hamas exploitation of the main relief agency for Palestinians.

• The cousin of a six-year-old Palestinian girl who died in Gaza after her family’s car appeared to come under fire from Israeli tanks has told how he spoke to her as she waited to be rescued and said he was haunted by her last words.

• The Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS) said Israeli forces have prevented oxygen from reaching the al-Amal hospital for over a week, resulting in the deaths of three patients. The PRCS said Israel has also not provided medical equipment, and continues to block the delivery of fuel for the hospital’s electricity generators, despite the fuel supply running out in two days, risking a shutdown. The IDF has now posted on its X account that it has allowed oxygen through.

• A total of 28,176 Palestinians have been killed and 67,784 have been injured in Israeli strikes on Gaza since 7 October, the Gaza health ministry said in a statement on Sunday. An estimated 112 Palestinians were killed and 173 injured in the past 24 hours, the ministry added.

• The US military said it struck more devices and missiles in Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen that were prepared to launch against ships in the Red Sea.