More carnage as Israel pounds Gaza
Israel has launched dozens of air strikes in the southern Gaza Strip during a large-scale search for a soldier it suspects was captured by Hamas fighters.
At least 35 Palestinians were killed in the bombardment and shelling in and around the city of Rafah, a Palestinian health official said, adding that the area’s main hospital was evacuated because of the strikes.
The Israeli military has said it believes the soldier was grabbed in a Hamas ambush about an hour after an internationally-brokered ceasefire took effect yesterday morning.
But the Hamas military wing distanced itself from the soldier’s purported capture, which has prompted widespread international condemnation. US president Barack Obama and United Nations chief Ban Ki-moon have called for his immediate release.
The Hamas military wing later said in a statement on its website that it was “not aware until this moment of a missing soldier or his whereabouts or the circumstances of his disappearance”.
The group said it believes the soldier might have been killed in a clash with Hamas fighters about an hour before the start of the ceasefire.
Hamas said it has lost contact with those fighters and that “we believe all members of this group have died in an (Israeli) strike, including the Zionist soldier the enemy says disappeared”.
The Israeli military declined to comment on the statement.
The disappearance of the soldier, Second Lt Hadar Goldin, and the heavy clashes that followed it shattered an internationally brokered ceasefire that was to have been in place for three days and open the way for talks in Cairo on a more sustainable truce.
Israel and Hamas have accused each other of violating the humanitarian pause.
The breakdown meant there would be no reprieve for the 1.7 million residents of Gaza, where large parts have been devastated by air strikes and shelling. More than 1,650 Palestinians – mostly civilians – have been killed and more than 8,000 wounded, according to health official Ashraf al-Kidra.
Israel has lost 63 soldiers and three civilians.
The fighting in Rafah intensified after the disappearance of the soldier and continued this morning, with people reporting air strikes along the Egypt-Gaza frontier as well as heavy tank and artillery shelling.
The Israeli military said it was searching for the missing soldier and had sent automated calls or text messages to Rafah residents to stay indoors.
“We are under fire, every minute or so tanks fire shells at us,” said Ayman Al-Arja, 45. “I have been thinking of leaving since 2pm, but tank fire can reach anywhere and I was scared they will hit my pick-up truck.
“Now we are sitting in the stairwell, 11 members of my family, my brother, his nine children and wife. We just have water to drink and the radio to hear the news.”
“We are just staying put waiting for God’s mercy.”
Since yesterday morning, more than 100 Palestinians have been killed in the Rafah area, including 35 early today, Mr al-Kidra said.
The police operations room reported 77 air strikes on the area and heavy shelling.
The Israeli military said Lt Goldin disappeared in an ambush about an hour after the ceasefire began. Gunmen emerged from one or more Gaza tunnels and opened fire at Israeli soldiers, with at least one of the militants detonating an explosives vest, said Israeli army spokesman Lt Col Peter Lerner.
Lt Goldin, 23, from the central Israeli town of Kfar Saba, was apparently captured in the ensuing mayhem, while another two Israeli soldiers were killed. “We suspect that he has been kidnapped,” Lt Col Lerner said.
Mr Obama called for Lt Goldin’s unconditional and immediate release and said it would be difficult to put the ceasefire back together.
He said Israel committed to the truce, but at the same time called the situation in Gaza “heartbreaking” and repeated calls for Israel to do more to prevent Palestinian civilian casualties.
“Innocent civilians caught in the crossfire have to weigh on our conscience and we have to do more,” Mr Obama said. He added that Israel must be able to defend itself, but irresponsible actions by Hamas had put civilians in danger.
Israel has gone to great lengths in the past to get back its captured soldiers. In 2011, it traded hundreds of Palestinian prisoners for an Israeli soldier who had been captured by Hamas-allied militants in 2006.
The capture of two soldiers in a cross-border operation by Lebanon’s Hezbollah guerrillas in 2006 sparked a 34-day war between the Iranian-backed Shiite group and Israel.
Mr Ban blamed Hamas for breaking the ceasefire and demanded the immediate and unconditional release of Lt Goldin.
The UN secretary general also urged both sides “to show maximum restraint and return to the agreed 72-hour humanitarian ceasefire”, U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said.
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu told US secretary of state John Kerry by phone that Palestinian militants “unilaterally and grossly” violated the ceasefire and attacked Israeli soldiers after 9am yesterday.
“Israel will take all necessary steps against those who call for our destruction and perpetrate terrorism against our citizens,” Mr Netanyahu told Mr Kerry.
But Moussa Abu Marzouk, Hamas’ deputy leader, denied that the militant group broke the truce. He told Al-Arabiya news channel from Cairo that the movement’s military wing carried out no military operations after 8am.
A long-time friend of Lt Goldin said he was engaged to be married and studied at a Jewish seminary in the West Bank settlement of Eli. He has a twin brother who also is in the military on the Gaza front lines.
The soldier’s father, Simha Goldin, is a Tel Aviv University professor specialising in Ashkenazi Jewry.
“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,” Mr Goldin senior told reporters outside his home.
