Tuesday, March 19th | 9 Adar II 5784

Subscribe
August 1, 2014 9:53 am
2

IDF Fears Captured Soldier; Suicide Bomber Aids Kidnapping; Escalation in Gaza Expected

× [contact-form-7 404 "Not Found"]

avatar by Deborah Danan

Abducted Israeli soldier Hadar Goldin. Photo: Channel 2.

The IDF spokesperson said Friday afternoon that the military is concerned Hamas gunmen succeeded in capturing a soldier during clashes in the southern Gaza city of Rafah. The military has been concentrating intelligence and operational efforts to locate the soldier. His family has been notified.

“[Israeli] forces operating to decommission an [infiltration] tunnel were attacked. Initial indications are that a soldier has been abducted by terrorists during the operation,” IDF spokesman, Lt.-Col. Peter Lerner said in a conference call with journalists.

According to the IDF spokesperson, around 9:30 a.m. terrorists opened fire at Israeli troops after emerging from a tunnel nearby. Two soldiers were wounded during the fire exchange. One of the Hamas gunmen detonated a suicide vest near the troops while others captured the soldier.

The military wing of Hamas has not published a statement on the incident. The soldier feared to have been captured was named Second Lieutenant Hadar Goldin, aged 23. A senior Hamas official was quoted by Israeli news website Ynet as saying he had “no knowledge or details about a kidnapping.” Meanwhile, Maj. Gen. Giora Eiland told Ynet that the abduction “shuffled the cards” and that Israel can now expect further escalation in Gaza.

Israel’s 0404 breaking news website quotes an unnamed minister in the Security Cabinet as saying: “We must move to the next stage: the downfall (‘killing’) of Hamas.”

Britain’s Channel 4 reported that the captured Israeli soldier is a British citizen and is related to Israel’s defense minister: “Channel 4 News understands that the soldier is from a family of British Jewish immigrants. It is also understand that he is a cousin – either second or third – of Israeli’s defence minister, Moshe Ya’alon.” Ynet further reported that Goldin was recently engaged to be married.

It was not clear whether the soldier currently presumed captured was wounded in the clash. Immediately after the fire exchange, artillery units began a heavy bombardment of targets inside the southern Gaza Strip.

In the heavy artillery shelling that ensued, at least 40 Palestinians were killed, according to Gazan officials. At least 150 were wounded and the Kerem Shalom border crossing, which had been previously opened to allow the passage of food and aid into Gaza, was closed.

The incident took place 90 minutes into a 72 hour ceasefire that was announced jointly by US Secretary of State John Kerry and UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, on Friday afternoon spoke with US Secretary of State John Kerry and told him that despite his joint statement with UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, according to which assurances had been received from Hamas and the other terrorist organizations in the Gaza Strip regarding a ceasefire from 8 a.m. local time Friday morning, the Palestinians had unilaterally and grossly violated the humanitarian ceasefire and attacked Israeli soldiers after 9 a.m.

According to the Prime Minister’s Office, Netanyahu told Kerry that Hamas and the other terrorist organizations in the Gaza Strip will bear the consequences of their actions and that Israel will take all necessary steps against those “who call for our destruction and perpetrate terrorism against our citizens.”

On Thursday, a senior IDF officer deployed inside the Gaza Strip told the Israeli news website NRG that Hamas was dedicating many resources to capturing a soldier.

“Unlike its rocket attacks aimed at civilians, Hamas has tried to fight IDF soldiers, in an effort to capture a soldier and use them as a bargaining chip in a future prisoner release. Attacks that have been carried out by gunmen until now have been targeting soldiers and not communities. The reason for this is that the issue of prisoners is always in the back of the minds of Hamas officials and also because of a realization that harming civilians will hurt their public image,” the officer told Israeli news website NRG.

“There has never been an effort to attack the IDF’s line of defense near the Gaza Strip border as intense as this one. We realized the enemy can attack us from 360 degrees and at a depth ranging between 300 meters and one kilometer inside the Gaza Strip border,” the senior IDF official said.

Share this Story: Share On Facebook Share On Twitter

Let your voice be heard!

Join the Algemeiner

Algemeiner.com

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.