The Israeli military says it has rescued two hostages from captivity in the Gaza Strip after a night of air strikes which killed at least 67 people.

Israeli forces stormed a heavily guarded apartment in the southern Gaza Strip to extract the captives.

To assist the rescue forces, heavy airstrikes pounded the area near the apartment in Rafah, a city on the southern edge of the Gaza Strip.

It identified the freed hostages as Fernando Simon Marman, 60, and Louis Har, 70.

It said both men were kidnapped by Hamas militants from Kibbutz Nir Yizhak in the October 7th cross-border attack that started the four-month Israel-Hamas war.

The army says both men are in good medical condition.

They are just the second and third hostages to be rescued safely and were among the 136 hostages Israel claims still remain in Hamas captivity.

Lt Col Richard Hecht said the operation was based on “precise intelligence” and that the site, on the second floor of a building, had been watched for “some time”.

He said prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu joined Israel’s military chief and other top officials as the raid unfolded.

Israel has described Rafah as the last remaining Hamas stronghold in Gaza and signalled that its ground offensive may soon target the densely populated city.

This comes despite warnings from US president Joe Biden not to conduct a military operation in the Gaza border town without a “credible and executable plan to protect civilians.

The Israeli military said it struck “terror targets in the area of Shaboura”, a district in Rafah.

Officials in the southern Gaza town of Rafah say at least 67 people were killed in airstrikes that accompanied an Israeli hostage rescue operation.

Ashraf al-Qidra, a spokesman for the Health Ministry in Hamas-run Gaza, said at least 67 were killed.

An Associated Press journalist in Rafah said strikes hit around Kuwait Hospital, where some of those wounded in the strikes had been brought.

According to the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry, more than 12,300 Palestinian minors – children and young teens – have been killed in Israel’s war against Hamas.

About 8,400 women were also among those killed.

The ministry does not distinguish between combatants and civilians and provided the breakdown of minors and women at the request of The Associated Press.

Israel claims to have killed 10,000 Hamas fighters.