An Israeli soldier rides atop a moving tank near the border with Gaza on August 2, 2014. – Reuters
The bloodshed in Gaza showed no sign of letting up Saturday, with 50 Palestinians reported killed amid renewed Israeli shelling following accusations that Palestinian militants captured an Israeli soldier.
The fate of the soldier, identified by the Israel Defense Forces as 2nd Lt. Hadar Goldin, remains unclear.
And each side blames the other for the collapse of an attempted cease-fire in Friday, which disintegrated before it ever really took hold.
Pointing the finger at Hamas and its militant allies for the attack, in which Goldin went missing and two other soldiers were killed, Israel resumed shelling on what it has described as militant strongholds in Gaza.
As of Saturday, the overall Palestinian death toll has risen to 1,650, with more than 8,900 wounded, said Ashraf el-Qedra, spokesman for the Palestinian Health Ministry in Gaza, on his Facebook page.
The IDF said Saturday morning that it had hit 200 ‘terror targets’ in Gaza in the past 24 hours, including ‘tunnels, weapon manufacturing and storage facilities, and command and control centers.’
A huge pre-dawn blast rocked Gaza as the Islamic University was apparently hit by Israeli shelling. According to the IDF, it was targeting ‘a Hamas military wing facility that was used for research and development of weapon manufacturing’ within the university.
Shelling also targeted weapons caches and Hamas facilities within five mosques, it said.
In addition, Israeli aircraft targeted a missile launcher used to fire at Tel Aviv, the IDF said. Two rockets were intercepted over that city and another over Beersheba early Saturday. In the past 24 hours, 65 rockets have been fired into Israel, the IDF said, 11 of which were intercepted.
Hamas acknowledged responsibility on Saturday for a deadly Gaza Strip ambush in which an Israeli army officer may have been captured, but said the incident likely preceded and therefore had not violated a US- and UN-sponsored truce.
The statement by Hamas’s armed wing, the Qassam Brigades, appeared aimed at preempting any intensification of Israel’s 25-day-old offensive in the Palestinian enclave and deflecting international blame for the collapse of Friday’s ceasefire.
But in a signal the war could wind down, Israel’s military said its objectives, chiefly the destruction of tunnels dug by Hamas for cross-border attacks, were close to being achieved.
Israel says Hamas gunmen and a suicide bomber stormed out of a tunnel to ambush its infantrymen in southern Rafah a 9.30 a.m. on Friday, one and a half hours after the halt to hostilities came into effect, killing two troops and hauling another, Lieutenant Hadar Goldin, away through the underground passage.
The incident triggered Israeli shelling of Rafah from the mid-morning that killed 150 Palestinians. By early afternoon, Israel declared an end to the truce – which was meant to have lasted 72 hours, allowing humanitarian relief to reach Gaza’s 1.8 million Palestinians and for further de-escalation talks.
Washington accused Hamas of a ‘barbaric’ breach of the deal mediated by Egypt with the involvement of Turkey, Qatar and US-backed Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas. The United Nations said it had not verified the flare-up’s causes, but questioned Hamas’s truce commitment and urged Goldin be freed.
Hamas said it did not know what had happened to the soldier but if he was captured, he probably died in Israeli hostilities that followed the ambus
The fate of the soldier, identified by the Israel Defense Forces as 2nd Lt. Hadar Goldin, remains unclear.
And each side blames the other for the collapse of an attempted cease-fire in Friday, which disintegrated before it ever really took hold.
Pointing the finger at Hamas and its militant allies for the attack, in which Goldin went missing and two other soldiers were killed, Israel resumed shelling on what it has described as militant strongholds in Gaza.
As of Saturday, the overall Palestinian death toll has risen to 1,650, with more than 8,900 wounded, said Ashraf el-Qedra, spokesman for the Palestinian Health Ministry in Gaza, on his Facebook page.
The IDF said Saturday morning that it had hit 200 ‘terror targets’ in Gaza in the past 24 hours, including ‘tunnels, weapon manufacturing and storage facilities, and command and control centers.’
A huge pre-dawn blast rocked Gaza as the Islamic University was apparently hit by Israeli shelling. According to the IDF, it was targeting ‘a Hamas military wing facility that was used for research and development of weapon manufacturing’ within the university.
Shelling also targeted weapons caches and Hamas facilities within five mosques, it said.
In addition, Israeli aircraft targeted a missile launcher used to fire at Tel Aviv, the IDF said. Two rockets were intercepted over that city and another over Beersheba early Saturday. In the past 24 hours, 65 rockets have been fired into Israel, the IDF said, 11 of which were intercepted.
Hamas acknowledged responsibility on Saturday for a deadly Gaza Strip ambush in which an Israeli army officer may have been captured, but said the incident likely preceded and therefore had not violated a US- and UN-sponsored truce.
The statement by Hamas’s armed wing, the Qassam Brigades, appeared aimed at preempting any intensification of Israel’s 25-day-old offensive in the Palestinian enclave and deflecting international blame for the collapse of Friday’s ceasefire.
But in a signal the war could wind down, Israel’s military said its objectives, chiefly the destruction of tunnels dug by Hamas for cross-border attacks, were close to being achieved.
Israel says Hamas gunmen and a suicide bomber stormed out of a tunnel to ambush its infantrymen in southern Rafah a 9.30 a.m. on Friday, one and a half hours after the halt to hostilities came into effect, killing two troops and hauling another, Lieutenant Hadar Goldin, away through the underground passage.
The incident triggered Israeli shelling of Rafah from the mid-morning that killed 150 Palestinians. By early afternoon, Israel declared an end to the truce – which was meant to have lasted 72 hours, allowing humanitarian relief to reach Gaza’s 1.8 million Palestinians and for further de-escalation talks.
Washington accused Hamas of a ‘barbaric’ breach of the deal mediated by Egypt with the involvement of Turkey, Qatar and US-backed Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas. The United Nations said it had not verified the flare-up’s causes, but questioned Hamas’s truce commitment and urged Goldin be freed.
Hamas said it did not know what had happened to the soldier but if he was captured, he probably died in Israeli hostilities that followed the ambus
The bloodshed in Gaza showed no sign of letting up Saturday, with 50 Palestinians reported killed amid renewed Israeli shelling following accusations that Palestinian militants captured an Israeli soldier.
The fate of the soldier, identified by the Israel Defense Forces as 2nd Lt. Hadar Goldin, remains unclear.
And each side blames the other for the collapse of an attempted cease-fire in Friday, which disintegrated before it ever really took hold.
Pointing the finger at Hamas and its militant allies for the attack, in which Goldin went missing and two other soldiers were killed, Israel resumed shelling on what it has described as militant strongholds in Gaza.
As of Saturday, the overall Palestinian death toll has risen to 1,650, with more than 8,900 wounded, said Ashraf el-Qedra, spokesman for the Palestinian Health Ministry in Gaza, on his Facebook page.
The IDF said Saturday morning that it had hit 200 ‘terror targets’ in Gaza in the past 24 hours, including ‘tunnels, weapon manufacturing and storage facilities, and command and control centers.’
A huge pre-dawn blast rocked Gaza as the Islamic University was apparently hit by Israeli shelling. According to the IDF, it was targeting ‘a Hamas military wing facility that was used for research and development of weapon manufacturing’ within the university.
Shelling also targeted weapons caches and Hamas facilities within five mosques, it said.
In addition, Israeli aircraft targeted a missile launcher used to fire at Tel Aviv, the IDF said. Two rockets were intercepted over that city and another over Beersheba early Saturday. In the past 24 hours, 65 rockets have been fired into Israel, the IDF said, 11 of which were intercepted.
Hamas acknowledged responsibility on Saturday for a deadly Gaza Strip ambush in which an Israeli army officer may have been captured, but said the incident likely preceded and therefore had not violated a US- and UN-sponsored truce.
The statement by Hamas’s armed wing, the Qassam Brigades, appeared aimed at preempting any intensification of Israel’s 25-day-old offensive in the Palestinian enclave and deflecting international blame for the collapse of Friday’s ceasefire.
But in a signal the war could wind down, Israel’s military said its objectives, chiefly the destruction of tunnels dug by Hamas for cross-border attacks, were close to being achieved.
Israel says Hamas gunmen and a suicide bomber stormed out of a tunnel to ambush its infantrymen in southern Rafah a 9.30 a.m. on Friday, one and a half hours after the halt to hostilities came into effect, killing two troops and hauling another, Lieutenant Hadar Goldin, away through the underground passage.
The incident triggered Israeli shelling of Rafah from the mid-morning that killed 150 Palestinians. By early afternoon, Israel declared an end to the truce – which was meant to have lasted 72 hours, allowing humanitarian relief to reach Gaza’s 1.8 million Palestinians and for further de-escalation talks.
Washington accused Hamas of a ‘barbaric’ breach of the deal mediated by Egypt with the involvement of Turkey, Qatar and US-backed Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas. The United Nations said it had not verified the flare-up’s causes, but questioned Hamas’s truce commitment and urged Goldin be freed.
Hamas said it did not know what had happened to the soldier but if he was captured, he probably died in Israeli hostilities that followed the ambus
And each side blames the other for the collapse of an attempted cease-fire in Friday, which disintegrated before it ever really took hold.
Pointing the finger at Hamas and its militant allies for the attack, in which Goldin went missing and two other soldiers were killed, Israel resumed shelling on what it has described as militant strongholds in Gaza.
As of Saturday, the overall Palestinian death toll has risen to 1,650, with more than 8,900 wounded, said Ashraf el-Qedra, spokesman for the Palestinian Health Ministry in Gaza, on his Facebook page.
The IDF said Saturday morning that it had hit 200 ‘terror targets’ in Gaza in the past 24 hours, including ‘tunnels, weapon manufacturing and storage facilities, and command and control centers.’
A huge pre-dawn blast rocked Gaza as the Islamic University was apparently hit by Israeli shelling. According to the IDF, it was targeting ‘a Hamas military wing facility that was used for research and development of weapon manufacturing’ within the university.
Shelling also targeted weapons caches and Hamas facilities within five mosques, it said.
In addition, Israeli aircraft targeted a missile launcher used to fire at Tel Aviv, the IDF said. Two rockets were intercepted over that city and another over Beersheba early Saturday. In the past 24 hours, 65 rockets have been fired into Israel, the IDF said, 11 of which were intercepted.
Hamas acknowledged responsibility on Saturday for a deadly Gaza Strip ambush in which an Israeli army officer may have been captured, but said the incident likely preceded and therefore had not violated a US- and UN-sponsored truce.
The statement by Hamas’s armed wing, the Qassam Brigades, appeared aimed at preempting any intensification of Israel’s 25-day-old offensive in the Palestinian enclave and deflecting international blame for the collapse of Friday’s ceasefire.
But in a signal the war could wind down, Israel’s military said its objectives, chiefly the destruction of tunnels dug by Hamas for cross-border attacks, were close to being achieved.
Israel says Hamas gunmen and a suicide bomber stormed out of a tunnel to ambush its infantrymen in southern Rafah a 9.30 a.m. on Friday, one and a half hours after the halt to hostilities came into effect, killing two troops and hauling another, Lieutenant Hadar Goldin, away through the underground passage.
The incident triggered Israeli shelling of Rafah from the mid-morning that killed 150 Palestinians. By early afternoon, Israel declared an end to the truce – which was meant to have lasted 72 hours, allowing humanitarian relief to reach Gaza’s 1.8 million Palestinians and for further de-escalation talks.
Washington accused Hamas of a ‘barbaric’ breach of the deal mediated by Egypt with the involvement of Turkey, Qatar and US-backed Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas. The United Nations said it had not verified the flare-up’s causes, but questioned Hamas’s truce commitment and urged Goldin be freed.
Hamas said it did not know what had happened to the soldier but if he was captured, he probably died in Israeli hostilities that followed the ambus
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