It couldn't be a A Tale of Two Cold Calculated Political Expediencies, could it?
After all, politicians never lie, and there is never any propaganda in war.
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Sunday 20 July 2014
(Reuters) - Hamas's armed wing said on Sunday it had captured an Israeli soldier, as fighting in Gaza led to the bloodiest losses in a nearly two-week military offensive, with some 100 Palestinians and 13 Israeli soldiers killed.
The Israeli military said it was checking on the reported capture, which was announced in a Hamas television broadcast. Israeli television stations ignored the report in their extended evening programing about the offensive.
"Qassam Brigades captured a Zionist soldier," said Abu Ubaida, the masked spokesman of the Izz el-Deen al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, who identified the soldier as Shaul Aron and recited what he said was Aron's identity tag number.
http://www.reuters.com/...
Sunday 20 July 2014
11:23 P.M. The Hamas' armed wing says it has captured an Israeli soldier during fighting in the Gaza Strip. Speaking on a Hamas television station, spokesman Abu Ubaida said "we have captured a Zionist soldier and the occupation has not admitted that."
IDF sources said that the Hamas claim sounded dubious and the chances that Hamas was holding an IDF soldier were slim.
http://www.haaretz.com/...
Monday 21 July 2014
5:38 A.M. "There's no kidnapped Israeli soldier and those rumors are untrue," Israel's UN ambassador Ron Prosor tell reporters in New York. Prosor was referring to the Hamas claim to have kidnapped a soldier.
http://www.haaretz.com/...
Tuesday 22 July 2014
10:11 A.M. One of the seven IDF soldiers inside of the APC attacked in Shujaiyeh, Gaza on Sunday has been classified as "missing," the army confirmed on Tuesday, and is presumed dead. The IDF said that the bodies of six out of the seven soldiers have been identified.
http://www.haaretz.com/...
Friday 25 July 2014
5:29 P.M. IDF confirms Sgt. Oron Shaul, who had been previously declared missing, did not survive the attack on his APC in Gaza on Sunday.
A special committee established by IDF Chief Rabbi Rafi Peretz concluded that Shaul is defined "a soldier killed in action whose burial site is unknown".
http://www.haaretz.com/...
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Friday 1 August 2014
1:36 P.M. IDF soldier missing in Gaza, feared taken captive.
Gaza militants opened fire at IDF troops operating in the southern Gaza Strip at 9:30 A.M., and it is feared an Israeli soldier has been taken captive by Gaza militants, the IDF Spokesman says.
"The IDF is currently conducting intelligence efforts and extensive searches in order to locate the missing soldier," the IDF statement read. The name of the IDF soldier has not been released. His family has been notified.
http://www.haaretz.com/...
Friday 1 August 2014
3:56 P.M. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on Friday afternoon, after two Israeli soldiers were killed and an officer was apparently taken captive following a suspected suicide bombing in the southern Gaza Strip.
http://www.haaretz.com/...
Friday 1 August 2014
“We have and I have unequivocally condemned Hamas and the Palestinian factions that were responsible for killing two Israeli soldiers and kidnapped a third,” the U.S. president told reporters.
“If they are serious about trying to resolve this situation, that soldier needs to be unconditionally released as soon as possible.”
http://www.cbc.ca/...
Friday 1 August 2014
8:41 P.M. Hamas official Ismail Radwan: Our political leadership has no information about a captured Israeli soldier. Even if it was true, the military leadership are the only ones authorized to report such an event.
http://www.haaretz.com/...
Saturday 2 August 2014
... in a statement released early on Saturday, the Qassam Brigades, Hamas' military wing, said it had "no information on this soldier".
It said it lost contact with a group of fighters in the area where the IDF soldier went missing, saying: "We believe they were all killed in the [Israeli] bombardment."
"Assuming that they managed to seize the soldier during combat, we assess that he was also killed in the incident," the statement said.
http://www.bbc.com/...
Saturday 2 August 2014
11:06 A.M. ...
Israeli forces are continuing to operate in the Rafah area in an effort to gain more information on 2nd Lt. Hadar Goldin, who appears to have been captured. Troops are sweeping houses and suspicious sites in the area, accompanied by massive shelling.
The IDF says it cannot say anything about Goldin’s state, but according to information at the army’s disposal, he was together with Major Benaya Sarel and Staff Sergeant Liel Gidoni during the attack, both of whom died. The IDF says Sarel and Gidoni are believed to have been killed in an attack by a suicide bomber and that fire was exchanged during the incident.
The senior officer also said there are no more soldiers left to question about the incident, except for those who were dozens of meters away from the site at the time.
http://www.haaretz.com/...
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But, then again, it could be A Tale of Two Cold Calculated Political Expediencies.
Saturday 2 August 2014
9:50 A.M. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has expressed frustration with U.S. efforts to forge a truce in Gaza in the aftermath of the humanitarian cease-fire's collapse, the Associated Press reports.
Netanyahu said in a phone conversation with U.S. Ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro that the Obama administration was "not to ever second-guess me again" and that Washington should trust his judgment on how to deal with Hamas, according to people familiar with the conversation.
Netanyahu added that he now "expected" the U.S. and other countries to fully support Israel's offensive in Gaza, according to those familiar with the call. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter by name.
http://www.haaretz.com/...
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