Gaza truce over, Israel soldier captured, 50 dead in Rafah shelling
Fri Aug 1, 2014 7:23pm GMT
By Nidal al-Mughrabi and Jeffrey Heller
GAZA/JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel declared a Gaza ceasefire over on Friday,
saying Hamas militants breached the truce soon after it came into effect and
apparently captured an Israeli officer while killing two other soldiers.
Renewed Israeli shelling killed more than 50 Palestinians and wounded some
220, hospital officials said. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called his
security cabinet into special session and publicly warned Hamas and other
militant groups they would "bear the consequences of their actions".
The 72-hour break announced by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and U.N.
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon was the most ambitious attempt so far to end
more than three weeks of fighting, and followed mounting international alarm
over a rising Palestinian civilian death toll.
Kerry called on Hamas, which has neither confirmed nor denied it is holding
the soldier, to release him immediately and unconditionally. He said he had
asked Qatar, which is close to Hamas, and Turkey to help free him.
"We have urged them, implored them, to use their influence to do whatever
they can to get that soldier returned," a senior State Department official
told reporters travelling with Kerry. "Absent that, the risk of this
continuing to escalate, leading to further loss of life is very high."
Ban condemned Hamas's reported violation of the ceasefire and demanded the
release of the soldier.
The ceasefire, which began at 8 a.m. (0500 GMT) (0600 BST), had prompted
Palestinian families to trek back to battle-devastated neighbourhoods where
rows of homes have been reduced to rubble.
It was to be followed by Israeli-Palestinian negotiations in Cairo on a
longer-term solution.
A senior Egyptian Foreign Ministry official said the talks would start on
Sunday, and that Cairo "expects the two sides to cease fire before the
launch of negotiations".
SEARCHING FOR TUNNELS
The Israeli military said that 90 minutes into the truce, militants attacked
soldiers searching for tunnels in the southern Gaza Strip used to infiltrate
fighters into Israel.
"Out of a tunnel access point or several, terrorists came out of the ground.
At least one was a suicide terrorist who detonated himself. There was an
exchange of fire," said Lieutenant-Colonel Peter Lerner, a military
spokesman. Two of the soldiers were killed.
"The initial indication suggests that a soldier has been abducted by
terrorists during the incident," he said told reporters. Mark Regev, a
Netanyahu spokesman, said Hamas was responsible for the attack.
Asked if the ceasefire was over, Lerner replied: "Yes. We are continuing our
activities on the ground." He said Israeli forces were mounting an
"extensive effort" to locate the officer, Second-Lieutenant Hadar Goldin,
23.
Kerry said the international community "must now redouble its efforts to end
the tunnel and rocket attacks by Hamas terrorists on Israel and the
suffering and loss of civilian life".
White House spokesman Josh Earnest described the soldier's apparent capture
as "a rather barbaric violation of the ceasefire agreement".
The Gaza Health Ministry said more than 50 people were killed and 220
wounded by Israeli shelling after the incident near the southern town of
Rafah.
There was no immediate word from militant groups on whether any were holding
the officer. Sami Abu Zuhri, a spokesman for the dominant Hamas movement in
Gaza, said Israel was trying to mislead the world and "cover up its Rafah
massacre".
Netanyahu spoke by telephone with Kerry and told him "the Palestinians had
blatantly breached the humanitarian ceasefire" and attacked Israeli
soldiers.
"Israel will take all necessary steps against those who call for its
annihilation and terrorise its citizens," a statement from Netanyahu's
office quoted him as saying.
WARREN OF TUNNELS
Israel launched its offensive in Gaza on July 8, unleashing air and naval
bombardments in response to a surge of cross-border rocket attacks. Tanks
and infantry pushed into the territory of 1.8 million on July 17. Gaza
officials say at least 1,509 Palestinians, mostly civilians, have been
killed and 7,000 wounded. Sixty-three Israeli soldiers have been killed and
more than 400 hurt. Three civilians have been killed by Palestinian rockets
in Israel.
The Palestinian death toll is now higher than during the last outbreak of
hostilities in 2008-2009, when more than 1,400 died. Eight rockets and
mortar bombs were fired from Gaza at Israel after the ceasefire began on
Friday, the military said, adding that one was intercepted by the Iron Dome
system and seven hit open areas.
The truce had left Israeli ground forces in place in the Hamas-dominated
Gaza Strip and a military spokeswoman had said operations would continue to
destroy a warren of tunnels through which the Islamist group has menaced
Israel's southern towns and army bases.
Israeli officials have long voiced concern that militants would try to
capture a soldier or an Israeli civilian. In 2011, Israel released more than
1,000 Palestinian prisoners in exchange for Gilad Shalit, a soldier snatched
by Hamas five years earlier.
Amid strong public support in Israel for the Gaza campaign, Netanyahu had
faced intense pressure from abroad to stand his forces down.
International calls for an end to the bloodshed intensified after shelling
on Wednesday that killed 15 people sheltering in a U.N.-run school in Gaza's
Jabalya refugee camp.
CAIRO NEGOTIATIONS
Hamas, isolated in an Arab world concerned about the rise Islamist
militancy, is seeking an end to Israel's blockade of Gaza. It also wants a
hostile Egypt to ease restrictions at its Rafah crossing with the territory
imposed after the military toppled Islamist president Mohamed Mursi last
July.
Israel has balked at freeing up Gaza's borders under any de-escalation deal
unless Hamas's disarmament is also guaranteed.
Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah, in a speech read out on his behalf on state
television on Friday, accused Israel of committing "war crimes against
humanity" in Gaza.
A senior State Department official travelling with Kerry in India had said
U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Bill Burns would arrive in Cairo on Saturday
and that Frank Lowenstein, the acting U.S envoy for Middle East peace, and
another U.S. official, Jonathan Schwartz, would be there on Friday.
The Palestinian delegation would be comprised of Hamas, Western-backed
Fatah, the Islamic Jihad militant group and a number of smaller factions,
Palestinian officials said. But U.S. officials said Israel and the United
States would not sit across the table from Hamas, which the two countries,
along with the European Union, consider a terrorist group.
(Additional reporting by Ari Rabinovitch, David Brunnstrom in New Delhi;
Lesley Wroughton in Washington; Michelle Nichols at the United Nations; and
Omar Fahmy in Cairo; Writing by Jeffrey Heller in Jerusalem; Editing by
Giles Elgood)