Ceasefire between Israel and Hama collapses; Israeli soldier captured
A recently declared 72-hour ceasefire between Israel and Hamas has been nullified after a Hamas attack on Israeli soldiers that saw two killed, and a third captured.
The New York Times reports that the incident happened as the Israeli forced cleared a tunnel in the Gaza Strip, something which the agreed upon ceasefire allowed.
Citing an Israeli military spokesperson, the Times says Hamas fighters attacked a team of Israeli soldiers as they made their way through a tunnel near the Palestinian city of Rafah. One of the fighters had a suicide vest on and tried to detonate it.
A firefight quickly ensued. As the fighting raged, Hamas grabbed 23-year-old Israeli soldier Second Lt. Hadar Goldin and dragged him underground and through the tunnel in question.
The incident was said to have taken place at around 9:30 a.m. local time, an hour and half after the official start of the ceasefire.
The Times reports that a Hamas spokesperson has told the Turkish media that Hamas did capture an Israeli soldier, but that the capture took place before the ceasefire started.
In a statement to the United States Secretary of State John Kerry about the incident, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said, "The Palestinians have blatantly and unilaterally violated the humanitarian cease-fire and attacked our soldiers after 9 a.m. Hamas and the other terrorist organizations in Gaza would bear the consequences of their acts."
Although a ceasefire was set to soon begin, neither side chose to enter the agreement quietly. The Times says that Israeli bombardment was blamed for the deaths of at least 14 Palestinians while Hamas continued to fire rockets at Israeli until minutes before the scheduled start of the ceasefire.
The last Israeli soldier to be taken hostage by Hamas was Gilad Shalit, who was captured in 2006. He spent five years in custody before being part of a prisoner swap that secured the release of more than 1,000 Palestinians from Israeli jails.
