Hamas Claims Capture Of Israeli Soldier Following Deadly Day

Breaking news from Gaza late Sunday:

Hamas claimed it captured an Israeli soldier Sunday on the deadliest day yet in the battle between Israel and Hamas militants in Gaza.

The solider was taken during an early morning operation, according to Abu Obeida, a spokesman for Hamas’ military wing, al-Qassam Brigades.

He provided the supposed soldier’s name and ID.

“He is a prisoner, and if Zionists lie about the dead and wounded, then the fate of this soldier is their responsibility,” the spokesman said.

Gunfire and cheers erupted in Gaza in apparent celebration of the soldier’s capture, according to CNN reporters on the ground.

There was no immediate comment from Israel. The Israel Defense Forces said it was aware of the report and looking into it.

“It’s a game changer, immediately, because it’s going to change what the Israelis are doing on the ground in that sector. They’re going to be looking for him,” said CNN military analyst Lt. Col. Rick Francona.

This news comes at the end of a deadly day in Israel’s military clash with Hamas:

Seventy Palestinians were killed Sunday in a heavy bombardment of a Gaza neighborhood and 13 Israeli soldiers were slain in the most intense day of fighting in Israel’s current offensive against Hamas fighters, officials said. …

So far, 18 Israeli soldiers have been killed since the armed forces launched a ground operation Thursday after days of airstrikes on the coastal strip, the Israeli military said. The Israeli death toll is now higher than during the Israeli military’s 2009 incursion into Gaza, when 13 Israelis were killed.

Israel pummeled a neighborhood in east Gaza overnight Sunday, producing gruesome images of bodies in the streets amid masses of rubble. The Gaza Health Ministry said 70 Palestinians were killed in the fighting in Shijaiyah. All told, almost 100 Gaza residents have died in 24 hours, the highest daily total.

There are also more than 81,000 displaced people seeking refuge in 61 shelters run by the United Nations.

By: dave-dr-gonzo

David Hirsch, a.k.a. Dave "Doctor" Gonzo*, is a renegade record producer, video producer, writer, reformed corporate shill, and still-registered lobbyist for non-one-percenter performing artists and musicians. He lives in a heavily fortified compound in one of Manhattan's less trendy neighborhoods.

* Hirsch is the third person to use the pseudonym, a not-so-veiled tribute to journalist and author Hunter S. Thompson, with the permission of his predecessors Gene Gaudette of American Politics Journal (currently webmaster and chief bottlewasher at Liberaland) and Stephen Meese at Smashmouth Politics.