|
62
killed
in Gaza;
Israeli
soldier
apparently
captured
By
IBRAHIM
BARZAK
and
DANIEL
ESTRIN
Associated
Press
GAZA
CITY,
Gaza
Strip -
Israeli
forces,
backed
by heavy
tank
fire and
airstrikes,
moved
deeper
into
southern
Gaza
late
Friday
in
search
of a
soldier
apparently
captured
in a
clash
with
Hamas
militants
earlier
in the
day. At
least 62
Palestinians
and two
Israeli
soldiers
were
killed
in the
fierce
fighting
that
quickly
shattered
a
U.S.-brokered
cease-fire.
The
truce
collapsed
less
than two
hours
after it
began.
The
Israeli
Cabinet
held a
rare
session
after
the
start of
the
Jewish
Sabbath
on
Friday
evening
to weigh
options,
including
whether
to
expand
the
25-day-old
operation
against
Hamas.
In
Gaza's
southern
Rafah
area,
the
military
urged
residents
in phone
calls to
stay
indoors
as
troops
advanced.
"We are
under
fire.
Every
minute
or so,
tanks
fire
shells,"
said
Ayman
al-Arja,
45, a
resident
of the
area.
Meanwhile,
U.N.
Secretary-General
Ban Ki-moon
blamed
Hamas
for
violating
what was
meant to
be a
three-day
humanitarian
cease-fire
and
demanded
the
immediate
and
unconditional
release
of the
missing
soldier.
Both
Israel
and
Hamas
accused
each
other of
breaking
the
cease-fire,
which
had been
announced
by the
U.S. and
the U.N.
and took
effect
at 8:00
a.m.
Friday.
The
breakdown
of the
truce
and the
apparent
capture
of the
Israeli
soldier
set the
stage
for a
major
escalation.
The
conflict
has
already
devastated
large
swaths
of the
coastal
area and
killed
at least
1,500
Palestinians,
mainly
civilians,
according
to
Palestinian
officials.
Israel
has lost
63
soldiers
and
three
civilians.
An hour
after
Friday's
cease-fire
started,
gunmen
emerged
from one
or more
Gaza
tunnels
and
opened
fire at
Israeli
soldier,
with at
least
one of
the
militants
detonating
an
explosives
vest,
said
Israeli
army
spokesman
Lt. Col.
Peter
Lerner.
Hadar
Goldin,
a
23-year-old
2nd Lt.
from the
central
Israeli
town of
Kfar
Saba,
was
apparently
captured
during
the
ensuing
mayhem
and
taken
back
into
Gaza
through
a
tunnel,
while
another
two
soldiers
were
killed.
"We
suspect
that he
has been
kidnapped,"
Lerner
said.
The
White
House
condemned
the
incident,
describing
it as an
"absolutely
outrageous"
action
by
Hamas.
Deputy
National
Security
Adviser
Josh
Earnest
said the
soldier
must be
released
immediately.
Israeli
Prime
Minister
Benjamin
Netanyahu,
meanwhile,
told
U.S.
Secretary
of State
John
Kerry in
a
telephone
conversation
that
Palestinian
militants
had
"unilaterally
and
grossly"
violated
the
ceasefire
and
attacked
Israeli
soldiers
after 9
a.m.
"Israel
will
take all
necessary
steps
against
those
who call
for our
destruction
and
perpetrate
terrorism
against
our
citizens,"
Netanyahu
told
Kerry,
according
to a
statement
from the
prime
minister's
office.
Mark
Regev,
Netanyahu's
spokesman,
said
Hamas
had "yet
again
thrown
away a
chance
for a
humanitarian
relief
for the
people
of Gaza,
by
deliberately
violating
this
ceasefire."
Moussa
Abu
Marzouk,
Hamas'
deputy
leader,
told Al-Arabiya
news
channel
from
Cairo
that the
movement's
military
wing
carried
no
military
operations
after 8
a.m.,
when the
truce
came
into
force.
If
confirmed,
Goldin's
capture
could
dramatically
change
the
trajectory
of the
conflict.
Any
cease-fire
efforts
would
likely
be put
on hold
and
Israel
might
instead
expand
its
ground
operation.
Israel
has in
the past
gone to
great
lengths
to
return
captured
soldiers.
In 2011,
it
traded
hundreds
of
Palestinian
prisoners
for an
Israeli
soldier
who had
been
captured
by
Hamas-allied
militants
in 2006.
A Hamas
spokesman,
Fawzi
Barhoum,
would
neither
confirm
nor deny
the
capture,
saying
it was
being
used -
along
with
news
that two
Israeli
soldiers
were
killed
in the
Rafah
area -
as a
cover
for a
"massacre."
The
Israeli
military
said the
heavy
shelling
in Rafah
that
followed
was part
of
operational
and
intelligence
activity
designed
to
locate
Goldin.
A
longtime
friend
of
Goldin's
said he
is
engaged
to get
married
and that
he
studied
at a
religious
Jewish
seminary
in the
West
Bank
settlement
of Eli.
Goldin
has a
twin
brother
who is
also in
the
military
on the
Gaza
front-lines,
said the
friend,
who
spoke on
condition
of
anonymity
because
he did
not have
the
family's
permission
to
discuss
Goldin's
personal
details
with the
media.
The
soldier's
father,
Simha
Goldin,
is a Tel
Aviv
University
professor
specializing
in
Ashkenazi
Jewry,
the
friend
said.
"We want
to
support
the
military
in the
fighting
against
Hamas in
Gaza. We
are sure
the
military
will not
stop
before
it turns
over
every
stone in
Gaza and
returns
Hadar
home
safe and
sound,"
the
father
said in
a brief
statement
to media
outside
his
home.
The
shelling
in Rafah
sent
families
fleeing
from
apartment
blocks
as
pillars
of smoke
caused
by the
shelling
rose
from
them.
One
woman
carrying
two
children
rushed
toward a
parked
car.
"Quickly,
open the
car
door!"
she
yelled
to a man
standing
nearby.
Ambulances
ferried
the
wounded
to
Rafah's
al-Najar
hospital,
where
bloodied
bodies
on
stretchers
were
carried
inside
and
family
members
frantically
searched
for
loved
ones.
Many of
the
wounded
were
children,
their
clothes
stained
with
blood.
In one
hospital
room,
four
children
were
treated
on a
single
bed.
Others
were
being
examined
on the
floor.
The
shelling
killed
at least
62
Palestinians
and
wounded
at least
400 in
Rafah,
Gaza
health
official
Ashraf
al-Kidra
said.
Rescue
workers
were
searching
for
people
buried
under
the
rubble,
he
added.
He did
not say
whether
those
killed
were
civilians
or
militants.
On July
8,
Israel
launched
an
aerial
campaign
against
Gaza
aimed at
halting
Palestinian
rocket
fire and
later
sent in
ground
troops
to
target
launch
sites
and
tunnels
used by
Hamas to
carry
out
attacks
inside
Israel.
Four
brief
humanitarian
cease-fires
had been
announced
since
the
conflict
began,
but each
broke
within a
few
hours.
The
military
said
Gaza
militants
had
fired at
least 23
rockets
and
mortars
at
Israel
since
the
start of
Friday's
cease-fire,
one of
which
was
intercepted.
The
latest
cease-fire
had been
intended
to be
the
first
step
toward a
lasting
truce,
with
Egypt
inviting
Israeli
and
Palestinian
delegations
to Cairo
for
talks.
Despite
the
collapse
of the
latest
truce,
an
Egyptian
government
official
said
Cairo
had not
canceled
its
invitation
for
Palestinians
and
Israelis
to hold
talks
there.
"Invitations
were
delivered
already
to the
delegations,"
said the
official,
who
spoke on
condition
of
anonymity
because
he
wasn't
authorized
to speak
to the
media.
After
the
cease-fire
started,
Gaza's
residents
took
advantage
of the
lull to
return
to their
homes,
many of
which
had been
destroyed
in the
fighting.
In the
heavily
bombarded
Gaza
district
of
Shijaiyah,
less
than 1.6
kilometers
(a mile)
from the
Israeli
border,
residents
surveyed
the
damage.
Bassem
Abul
Qumbus
found
his
three-story
home -
in which
he had
invested
tens of
thousands
of
dollars
-
shattered.
Shells
had
punched
a hole
in the
ceiling
of one
bedroom
and a
wall had
collapsed
into the
kitchen.
"The
work of
all
those
years is
gone,"
he said,
as he
struggled
to
salvage
flour
from
bags
that had
been
torn
apart by
shrapnel.
In the
southern
town of
Khan
Younis,
residents
searched
for
bodies
in the
rubble
of their
homes as
rescuers
and
volunteers
carried
away
corpses,
some
charred,
on
makeshift
stretchers.
Nidal
Abu
Rjeila
found
the body
of his
disabled
sister
on the
ground
on the
side of
the
road,
her
wheelchair
flipped
upside
down. He
said her
body had
been
there
for five
days.
"I tried
to reach
human
rights
groups
and the
Red
Cross,
but no
one was
answering
me," he
said as
he lay
down by
his
sister's
body,
overcome
by
grief.
Israel
says it
has
tried to
spare
civilians,
including
by
warning
people
ahead of
military
strikes,
and has
said
Hamas
endangers
Gazans
by
firing
rockets
from
residential
areas.
Palestinian
militants
have
fired
hundreds
of
rockets
into
Israel
since
the
start of
the
conflict,
extending
their
reach to
major
cities
but
causing
very few
casualties,
in part
because
Israel's
Iron
Dome
defense
system
has
intercepted
many of
the
projectiles.
Hamas
has
vowed to
keep
fighting
until
Israel
and
Egypt
lift a
blockade
of Gaza
imposed
after
the
Islamic
militant
group
seized
power
there in
2007,
which
has
devastated
the
local
economy.
Gaza's
police
operations
room
said
that by
Friday
afternoon,
Israeli
ground
forces
had
moved
deeper
into the
Rafah
area
from the
east.
There
were
also
airstrikes
along
the
nearby
Egypt-Gaza
border,
as well
as heavy
shelling. |