'Captured' Israeli soldier is declared dead

An Israeli soldier feared by the the military to have been abducted by Palestinian gunmen in a firefight that shattered Gaza’s temporary ceasefire has been declared dead.

The announcement ended what could have been a nightmare scenario for Israel, hours after it signalled plans to scale back its operation against Hamas militants.

The military said Second Lieutenant Hadar Goldin, 23, of the Givati infantry brigade, had been killed in battle on Friday. Israel’s defence minister, along with the chief military rabbi, met the soldier’s family at their home in the town of Kfar Saba.

Hundreds of people from all over the country had gathered outside the home, praying and showing their support. There was an outpouring of grief when the military’s announcement was made public.

“Prior to the decision, all medical considerations, religious observances, as well as additional relevant issues were taken into consideration,” the military said.

The military had previously said it believed the soldier was grabbed in a Hamas ambush about an hour after an internationally-brokered ceasefire took effect on Friday morning.

Hamas had distanced itself from the soldier’s alleged capture, which prompted widespread international condemnation with US president Barack Obama, United Nations chief Ban Ki-moon and others calling for his immediate and unconditional release.

For Israel, the capture of a soldier or civilian by Palestinian militants is a scenario with far-reaching implications.

The country has gone to great lengths in the past to get back its captured soldiers. In 2011 it traded more than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners, many involved in deadly attacks on civilians, for a single Israeli soldier who had been captured by Hamas-allied militants in 2006.

The capture of two soldiers in a cross-border operation by Lebanon’s Hezbollah gunmen in 2006 sparked a 34-day war between the Iranian-backed militant Shiite group and Israel.

Soon after Lt Goldin was believed to have been kidnapped on Friday, Israel conducted extensive searches in the territory and deployed heavy fire that killed scores of Palestinians.

Yesterday Israel signalled that it planned to scale back its military operation in Gaza and said it would not participate for now in any ceasefire negotiations in Cairo with Hamas.

But the Islamic militant group suggested it would not hold its fire in the case of a unilateral Israeli pull-out, raising the prospect of renewed hostilities in the future.

Israel continued to pound Gaza with air strikes yesterday, killing at least 72 Palestinians, many in the southern border town of Rafah where troops searched for the soldier.

In a televised address, prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu suggested the Israeli military would reassess its Gaza operation once troops completed the demolition of Hamas tunnels under the Gaza-Israel border.

Once the tunnels are demolished “the military will prepare for continuing action in according to our security needs”, he said, stressing all options remained on the table.

“We promised to return the quiet to Israel and that is what we will do. We will continue to act until that goal is reached, however long it will take and with as much force needed,” Mr Netanyahu said.

“Hamas needs to understand that it will pay an intolerable price as far as it is concerned for continuing to fire.”

Since the Gaza war began on July 8, at least 1,712 Palestinians, including many civilians, have been killed and more than 9,000 wounded, Palestinian health official Ashraf al-Kidra said.

Israel has now lost 64 soldiers and three civilians, its highest death toll since its 2006 war with Lebanon’s Hezbollah. Hundreds of soldiers have been wounded.

Large swathes of Gaza have been destroyed and about 250,000 people have been forced to flee their homes. In Israel, much of the country has been exposed to Hamas rocket attacks which have damaged homes and infrastructure and caused injuries.

Cabinet minister Yuval Steinitz said Israel would not send a delegation to proposed truce talks in Cairo for now. Speaking to Israel’s Channel 10 television station, he said Hamas repeatedly broken previous ceasefire deals.

“That leads us to the conclusion that with this organisation there is no point in speaking about an agreement or a ceasefire because we have tried it too many times,” he said.

Meanwhile there are already signs of troop redeployments in Gaza.

The Israeli military told residents of the northern Gaza town of Beit Lahiya that it would be safe for them to return to their homes. The area, from which Gaza militants had fired rockets at Israel in the past, came under heavy tank fire during Israel’s ground operation, forcing thousands to flee.

Israeli troops and tanks also started a gradual pull-back from the area east of the Gaza town of Khan Younis to the border with Israel.

Israel ended a previous major military operation in Gaza more than five years ago with a unilateral pull-back.

From an Israeli perspective, the advantage of a unilateral pull-out or troop redeployment to the strip’s fringes is that it can do so on its own terms, rather than becoming entangled in negotiations with Hamas.

Hamas has said it will only halt fire if Israel and Egypt lift their seven-year-old border blockade of the territory.

But a unilateral pull-out does not address the underlying causes of cross-border tensions and carries the risk of a new flare-up of violence in the future, a prospect underlined by defiant Hamas messages yesterday.

“We will continue to resist until we achieve our goals,” Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum said after Mr Netanyahu’s speech, dismissing the Israeli leader’s remarks as “confused”.