Loud Thinking July 21, 2014 at 04:01AM

Hamas military wing claims it has kidnapped Israeli soldier on edge of Gaza (Times of India)

Hope Pakistani media also reports this great news..?

If no other Muslim country is coming to the help of the un-armed Palestinians even then the myth of the Israel’s invincibility blown up by the brave Gaza Palestinians.

GAZA CITY (Palestinian Territories): The armed wing of the Palestinian Hamas group claimed on Sunday night that it had kidnapped an Israeli soldier, prompting celebrations on the streets of Gaza City.

“The Israeli soldier Shaul Aaron is in the hands of the Qassam Brigades,” a spokesman using the nom de guerre Abu Obeida said in a televised address.

A spokeswoman for the Israeli military said they were aware of the claim and were investigating.

AFP correspondents said there were celebrations in Gaza City, as well as in the streets of the West Bank cities of Ramallah and Hebron following the announcement from the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, with Palestinians firing guns in the air and praising Hamas.

The Qassam Brigades said the soldier had been kidnapped 24 hours earlier during an ambush on Israeli forces in the Tuffah district on the eastern edges of Gaza City.

Palestinians are offered sweets as they celebrate outside the Shifa hospital in Gaza City on late Sunday, July 20, 2014. (AP photo)

There has been heavy fighting on the eastern edges of Gaza, with Israel saying Sunday that 13 soldiers had been killed in violence overnight.

Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri hailed the news in a statement. “The announcement by the Qassam Brigades of the capture of a Zionist soldier is a great victory and revenge for the blood of the martyrs,” he said.

Hamas last kidnapped an Israeli soldier, Gilad Shalit, in 2006. He was held until 2011, when he was freed in exchange for 1,027 Palestinian prisoners, some of whom have subsequently been rearrested by Israel.

Bloody Sunday as 100 Gazans, 13 Israeli soldiers killed

The claim came on day 13 of the latest flare-up in violence between Israel and Hamas, which has seen the deaths of 438 Palestinians and 20 Israelis, 18 of them soldiers.

More than 60 Palestinians were killed in the Shejaiya district alone overnight and into Sunday morning in heavy Israeli tank fire.

Palestinians hold a doll wrapped in a white cloth with red stains and shout slogans during a protest in front of the Dome of the Rock at the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in the Old City of Jerusalem. (AFP photo)

The current round of conflict began on July 8, with Israel announcing on July 17 that it would undertake ground operations in Gaza.

The Israeli military offensive saw the bloodiest single day in Gaza in five years.

“Over the course of the day, 13 soldiers from the IDF’s Golani Brigade were killed in combat in the Gaza Strip,” an Israeli military statement said.

Their deaths raised to 18 the number of soldiers killed since the ground operation began late on Thursday. It was the largest number of soldiers killed in combat since the 2006 Lebanon war.

Chief of general staff of the Israel Defence Forces Benny Gantz talks to reporters near Israel’s border with the Gaza Strip on July 20, 2014. (AFP photo)

More than half of Sunday’s Palestinian victims were killed in a blistering hours-long Israeli assault on Shejaiya, near Gaza City, which began before dawn and has so far claimed 62 Palestinian lives, with another 250 wounded.

With ambulances unable to reach the area, the International Committee of the Red Cross called for an urgent temporary ceasefire to allow paramedics to evacuate the dead and wounded, which was agreed on by the two sides.

Inside Shejaiya, there were hellish scenes of carnage and chaos as a convoy of ambulances moved in, an AFP correspondent said.

Israeli soldiers of the Paratroopers Brigade mourn over the grave of Sgt Bnaya Rubel during his funeral at the military cemetery in Holon, Israel on July 20, 2014. (AP photo)

Entire buildings were collapsed on themselves or strewn into the streets, while others were ablaze, sending pillars of dark smoke skywards.

There were also bodies, blackened and charred almost beyond recognition, some with whole limbs missing.

Abbas calls urgent meeting

As the violence raged, Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas arrived in Qatar to discuss a ceasefire with Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal, and UN chief Ban Ki-moon arrived later to push truce efforts.

“I am calling for an urgent session tonight of the UN security council,” Abbas said in a speech broadcast on Palestinian TV.

“What the occupation forces did today in Shejaiya is a crime against humanity,” he said. “Those who committed it will not go unpunished.”

A handout picture released by the Palestinian president’s office shows Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad al-Thani (right) greeting Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas before a meeting in the capital Doha on July 20, 2014.

Ban also condemned the “atrocious action” in Shejaiya and urged Israel to “exercise maximum restraint”.

“Too many innocent people are dying … (and) living in constant fear,” he told a news conference in Doha.

So far, truce efforts have been rejected by Hamas which has pressed on with its own attacks, undaunted by the Israeli bombardment by land, sea and air.

Following a night of terror in Shejaiya, thousands fled for their lives at first light after heavy shelling, an AFP correspondent reported.

Palestinian medical personnel treat a wounded baby at the emergency room of the Shifa hospital in Gaza City on July 18, 2014. (AP photo)

Among them were gunmen, some with their faces covered by scarves. Women and children were among the dead, as were a Palestinian paramedic and a cameraman killed when an ambulance was hit.

“He wasn’t a fighter, he was a fighter for humanity,” wailed one relative. “He was an ambulance worker, did he deserve to die?”

UNRWA has opened 61 of its schools to shelter those fleeing, with more than 81,000 people taking refuge in them, the refugee agency said.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has blamed the civilian casualties on Hamas using innocent civilians “as human shields”, and on Sunday insisted the military campaign had strong international backing.

Orthodox Jews dance with Israeli soldiers at an army deployment area near Israel’s border with the Gaza Strip on July 20, 2014. (AFP photo)

“We are carrying out a complex, deep, intensive activity inside the Gaza Strip and there is world support for this … very strong support,” he said ahead of a security cabinet meeting.

Although Israel said earlier Sunday it was expanding its ground operation to destroy the network of tunnels used by militants to stage cross-border attacks, Netanyahu said troops could end their mission “fairly quickly”.

His defence minister Moshe Yaalon also suggested it could end within days.

“My assessment is that in another two or three days, the lion’s share of the tunnels, from our perspective, will be destroyed,” Yaalon said.

But he demanded international action to “demilitarize Gaza”, the tiny coastal enclave which is home to 1.7 million Palestinians and is one of the most densely populated areas on the planet.

Israel’s right to self-defence in the face of rocket fire from Gaza has won repeated support from Washington.

US President Barack Obama expressed concern over the loss of life in a call to Netanyahu, saying secretary of state John Kerry would travel to Cairo to seek an end to the fighting.

Kerry, meanwhile, blamed Hamas for perpetuating the conflict by “stubbornly” refusing all ceasefire efforts.

By its behaviour, Hamas had “invited further actions” by Israel, he said, in remarks which drew an angry response from Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan who accused Israel of killing Palestinians “mercilessly”.

“How can we ignore this? How can a country like the United States turn a blind eye to this?” Erdogan asked.

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