Hamas launched a major attack on IDF forces shortly after the American-sponsored 72-hour ceasefire took effect this morning, attacking an Israel position and reportedly kidnapping a soldier. Two additional soldiers were killed.
The New York Times reports that as Israeli troops were preparing to destroy a terror tunnel, an activity allowed for under terms of the ceasefire, “when several militants came out of the ground.”
Colonel [Peter] Lerner said the militants included at least one suicide attacker, that there was an exchange of fire on the ground and that initial indications were that a soldier was apparently dragged back into the tunnel. He was unable to offer details about the soldier’s condition or whether anyone was killed in the attack. He said the episode began at around 9.30 a.m., about 90 minutes after the 72-hour cease-fire came into effect.
“The cease-fire is over,” Colonel Lerner said, adding that the military was carrying out “extensive operations on the ground” to try to locate the missing soldier. He did not identify the soldier but said his family had been notified.
If our suspicions about today's events are accurate, Hamas took advantage of the latest ceasefire in order to kidnap an IDF soldier.
— IDF (@IDFSpokesperson) August 1, 2014
In response to the kidnapping Israel announced that it was ending the ceasefire. Al Ahram reports that Egypt cancelled the ceasefire talks apparently in response to the Hamas violation of the ceasefire.
Egypt decided on Friday to cancel its hosting of ceasefire talks over the ongoing Gaza war, a Palestinian source — who was expected to attend the negotiations — told Ahram Online. …
“The Egyptians contacted Islamic Jihad and said Israel told them that a soldier has been captured,” Ziad Al-Nakhala, Islamic Jihad’s deputy leader, told AFP. “The talks have been postponed.”
The Times of Israel identified the missing soldier and reports that the IDF searching “frantically” for him in Rafah.
IDF soldier [2d Lt.] Hadar Goldin, an officer in the Givati Brigade, was abducted in the Rafah area of Gaza on Friday morning, in an attack perpetrated some 90 minutes after the onset of a truce, an IDF spokesman said Friday. …
MK Omer Bar-Lev, a former commander of the elite Sayeret Matkal unit, said the militants will have likely tried to get the soldier out of the area via tunnels. “It’s a race against time… by the ground forces, to close off the area, and search house by house,” he said.
Lerner is quoted by The Times of Israel saying, “Everything that has happened since then in the Rafah area is on account of the attack.”
Note that Israel is currently acting especially aggressively – there must be reason for that
— Shmuel Rosner (@rosnersdomain) August 1, 2014
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