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107 Palestinians dead, Hamas denies taking missing Israeli soldier
[Al Ahram] At least 107 Paleostinians were killed and an Israeli soldier was missing presumed captured as a fresh wave of violence swept through the Gazoo Strip Saturday following the failure of an agreed ceasefire.The attacks continued throughout the night, leaving at least 35 Paleostinians dead in the Gazoo town of Rafah alone in a series of Israeli air raids in the hours since midnight (2100 GMT) Friday. US President Barack Obama Because I won... called for the missing soldier, 23-year-old Second Lieutenant Hadar Goldin to be "unconditionally" released, but also said more must be done to protect Gazoo civilians. Israeli Justice Minister Tzipi Livni, a member of the eight-strong security cabinet, accused Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, of being behind the disappearance of the missing soldier and said the group would pay a high price. However early Saturday the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas' armed wing, said it had no information on the whereabouts of the missing soldier. "The Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades has no information on this soldier. We have lost contact with one of our combatant groups, which was fighting in the sector where the soldier went missing and it is possible that our fighters and this soldier were killed," the group said in a statement. The intensive fighting resumed after the planned three-day ceasefire, which began at 0500 GMT on Friday, swiftly collapsed. The toll on the Paleostinian side was 107 people dead and hundreds others maimed since the toll collapsed, said Paleostinian emergency services front man Ashraf al-Qudra. Some 1,650 Paleostinians, the vast majority of them civilians, have been killed in the 26 days since the present conflict started, Qudra said. On the Israeli side, 63 soldiers and three civilians have died. Hamas accused Israel of breaking the short-lived ceasefire, while Tel Aviv said it was responding to the Death Eater attacks. The chances of a durable truce seemed as remote as ever after the presumed capture of the Israeli soldier. Obama said the United States "unequivocally condemned Hamas and the Paleostinian factions that were responsible for killing two Israeli soldiers, and abducting a third almost minutes after a ceasefire had been announced". Posted by: Fred 2014-08-03 |
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