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| Version 4 | Version 5 |
|---|---|
| Israel soldier dies in Gaza clash | Israel soldier dies in Gaza clash |
| (about 3 hours later) | |
| An Israeli soldier has been killed in a clash in the Gaza Strip, the Israeli military says. | |
| Palestinian militants say they killed him and injured others in an ambush. | |
| The clash took place near the Kissufim crossing with Israel in central Gaza during an Israeli military incursion. | The clash took place near the Kissufim crossing with Israel in central Gaza during an Israeli military incursion. |
| A joint statement by Hamas's military wing and the Popular Resistance Committees said the ambush occurred just 500m inside Gaza. | |
| The militant groups say they seized the dead soldier's weapon. | |
| Israeli forces have carried out many incursions and air strikes on Gaza since the capture in late June of Israeli Cpl Gilad Shalit in a cross-border raid by Palestinian militants. | |
| Gaza sealed | Gaza sealed |
| The Israeli soldier is the second to die in Gaza since the capture of Cpl Shalit. The other soldier was killed in a "friendly fire" incident. | |
| Over this period, Gaza has been largely sealed off. A senior US official recently warned that living conditions for Palestinians in Gaza had reached breaking point. | |
| Israel says the campaign in Gaza aims to secure the release of its soldier and stop militants from firing rockets into Israel. | |
| The Palestinian militant groups say that their attacks are a response to Israeli air strikes, raids, arrests and killings, both in Gaza and the West Bank. | The Palestinian militant groups say that their attacks are a response to Israeli air strikes, raids, arrests and killings, both in Gaza and the West Bank. |
| Between the end of June and the end of August, Israeli security forces killed 226 Palestinians, 54 of them minors, in the Gaza Strip, Israeli human rights group B'Tselem reports. | |
| The group says 114 of these were not taking part in any hostilities when killed, and 46 of them were minors. | The group says 114 of these were not taking part in any hostilities when killed, and 46 of them were minors. |
| Earlier on Tuesday, an Israeli air strike destroyed the two-floor home in central Gaza. No-one was injured. | Earlier on Tuesday, an Israeli air strike destroyed the two-floor home in central Gaza. No-one was injured. |
| The building belonged to a senior security official in the Palestinian Authority's interior ministry. | The building belonged to a senior security official in the Palestinian Authority's interior ministry. |
| An Israeli army spokesman said the house was targeted because it was being used to store weapons. | An Israeli army spokesman said the house was targeted because it was being used to store weapons. |
| EU statement | |
| Also on Tuesday, the European Union gave a cautious welcome to progress on the formation of a national unity government by the Palestinian groups Hamas and Fatah. | |
| A statement issued by Finland, the current holder of the EU presidency, said: "The presidency sees this as a positive development and hopes that it will create the conditions for a return to the process of negotiation between the Israeli and Palestinian sides. | |
| "The presidency reiterates the belief of the European Union that only a negotiated two-state solution can bring lasting peace to the Middle East." | |
| The international community imposed an economic boycott against the present Hamas-led administration because it refuses to recognise Israel's right to exist and refuses to renounce violence. | |
| The new government will be headed by the current Hamas Prime Minister, Ismail Haniya, while the Palestinian President, Mahmoud Abbas, of Fatah, will be responsible for negotiations with Israel. | |
| Israel's Foreign Minister, Tzipi Livni, said it did not matter which political groups formed a Palestinian government. | |
| What mattered, she said, was that a new government fulfilled conditions set by the West - or nothing would have changed. |