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Version 11 Version 12
Gaza Cease-Fire Collapses; Israeli Soldier Is Captured Attack on Israeli Soldiers Brings Truce to Quick Halt
(about 3 hours later)
JERUSALEM — A newly reached cease-fire in the Gaza conflict quickly collapsed on Friday as the Israeli military announced that two soldiers had been killed and a third captured by Palestinian militants who emerged from a tunnel near Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip. The Israelis responded with fierce assaults that left dozens more Palestinians dead. JERUSALEM — Palestinian militants sprang from the ground and confronted Israeli soldiers Friday morning, as they have repeatedly in recent days. This time, Israeli officials said, one exploded a suicide belt while another unleashed machine-gun fire. This time, two Israeli soldiers were killed and the militants apparently escaped with a third.
The United States and United Nations, which had orchestrated the cease-fire, joined with Israel in condemning the capture, and President Obama asserted that the soldier must be freed in order to salvage a halt to the 25-day-old crisis. The attack, at the start of what was supposed to be a 72-hour pause in the fighting, escalated the deadly 25-day battle between Israel and Hamas, the Islamist faction that dominates the Gaza Strip.
Gaza health officials said at least 70 Palestinians were killed and more than 100 wounded as Israeli forces bombarded the Rafah area. Palestinian witnesses said by telephone that Israeli tank shells had hit eastern Rafah as residents returned to inspect homes they had evacuated. Israel said the attack, from under a house near the southern border town of Rafah, took place at 9:20 a.m., soon after the 8 a.m. onset of the temporary truce secured by the Obama administration and the United Nations, whose leaders squarely blamed the breakdown on Hamas.
Each side accused the other of violating the 72-hour truce, which disintegrated in less than two hours. Hamas’s account was confused. One leader was quoted claiming credit for the abduction, then backtracked. Others contended that the clash unfolded at 7 a.m., before the cease-fire, although Palestinian reports of fighting near Rafah came three hours later. And one said that in any case, the Hamas gunmen acted only to counter “Zionist incursions.”
Hamas, the dominant militant group in Gaza, said in a statement that Israel’s announcement about the capture of an Israeli soldier was intended “to cover up the barbaric massacres, especially in Rafah.” What was clear was that the episode dimmed prospects for curtailing a conflict that has killed more than 1,600 Palestinians, many of them women and children, and plunged Gaza into a humanitarian crisis. Israel responded with an assault that killed 70 people and injured 350 around Rafah alone as troops sealed the area to hunt for the missing officer amid mounting pressure from Israeli politicians and the public to expand the military mission.
Hamas did not claim responsibility for seizing the soldier, adding another layer of confusion. Hamas’s military wing, the Qassam Brigades, issued an ambiguous statement several hours after the event denying that it had violated the cease-fire and saying that Israeli troops had advanced into eastern Rafah well before the cease-fire’s 8 a.m. start. It made no mention of a soldier’s capture. The deadly attack and counterattack sharpened a sense that intensive diplomacy is proving ineffective and irrelevant to the asymmetrical combat on the ground. Secretary of State John Kerry had made clear in announcing the cease-fire that Israel would be allowed to continue operating against tunnels from Gaza into its territory, something one Hamas spokesman indicated Friday was contrary to “the Palestinian understanding with mediating parties.”
“Due to this Zionist invasion, our holy fighters clashed with the forces and killed a large number at 7 a.m.,” the statement said. It added, “We emphasize that any Zionist forces violating our liberated land would be subject to our holy fighters’ fire and a legitimate target.” The events renewed command-and-control questions about Hamas, a guerrilla group torn by rivalries and communication snags between its military and political rulers in Gaza and abroad. They also suggested neither side is ready for an exit ramp until its goals are met: for Israel, destruction of the tunnels and a halt to rocket fire from Gaza, and for Hamas, a score that can be leveraged to change the social and economic conditions of Gaza’s 1.7 million beleaguered people.
Moussa Abu Marzouk, a senior official in the political wing of Hamas, had been quoted by Turkish news reports earlier Friday as saying that Hamas had taken a soldier captive but claiming that it had done so before the cease-fire began. Later Mr. Abu Marzouk said on his Twitter account that the Turkish news accounts had misrepresented his remarks and that he had said only that Hamas was told a soldier had been seized. “It’s going to be very hard to put a cease-fire back together again if Israelis and the international community can’t feel confident that Hamas can follow through,” President Obama said on Friday at the White House. He called the killing of civilians in Gaza “heartbreaking” and said, “It’s possible we may be able to arrive at a formula that spares lives and also ensures Israel’s security, but it’s difficult, and I don’t think we should pretend otherwise.”
Israel’s military vehemently denied Hamas’s account of the timing of the clash, saying it began 90 minutes after the cease-fire took hold. Both Mr. Kerry and Ban Ki-moon, the secretary general of the United Nations, demanded an immediate and unconditional release of the Israeli officer. Mr. Ban described the attack as “a grave violation of the cease-fire” that called “into question the credibility of Hamas’s assurances to the United Nations.”
Lt. Col. Peter Lerner, a spokesman for the Israeli military, said that government forces had been moving to destroy a tunnel, as the terms of the cease-fire allowed for, when several militants came out of the ground. Israeli fears about kidnapping have been palpable since Hamas fighters used a tunnel under the border to enter Israeli territory near a kibbutz outside Gaza on July 17. Later that night, Israel launched a ground invasion to accompany the air campaign that began on July 8. Several similar attempts to infiltrate Israel have been thwarted; after one, Israel found plastic hand-ties and tranquilizers. For Hamas, which in 2006 abducted Staff Sgt. Gilad Shalit and five years later traded him for more than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails, a live hostage is perhaps its most powerful weapon.
Colonel Lerner said the militants included at least one suicide attacker. There was an exchange of fire, he said, and initial indications were that a soldier was dragged back into the tunnel. He was unable to offer details about the soldier’s condition. After an intense predawn battle in the Gaza City neighborhood of Shejaiya on July 20, Hamas announced that it had captured Staff Sgt. Oron Shaul and broadcast his identification number, prompting celebrations across Gaza and the West Bank. Israel later said Sergeant Shaul had been killed in action, but no remains had been recovered.
“The cease-fire is over,” he said, adding that the military was carrying out “extensive operations on the ground” to try to locate the missing soldier. Israeli military officials said they were uncertain of the condition of the officer captured on Friday. They identified him as Second Lt. Hadar Goldin, 23, of the elite Givati Brigade. Lieutenant Goldin has a twin brother who until Friday was also fighting at the front, according to Israeli news reports, and he had proposed to his girlfriend during the war, scheduling the wedding in two months.
The Israeli military identified the missing soldier as Second Lt. Hadar Goldin, 23, an officer in an infantry brigade. Later the soldier’s father, Simcha Goldin, speaking to journalists outside his home in Kfar Saba, Israel, said he was confident that Israel’s military forces would “not stop under any circumstances until they have turned over every stone in Gaza and have brought Hadar home healthy and whole.” His father, Simcha Goldin, said the family was confident the Israeli military would “not stop under any circumstances until they have turned over every stone in Gaza and have brought Hadar home healthy and whole.”
After the initial publication of this article, the military’s censor informed The New York Times that further information related to Lieutenant Goldin would have to be submitted for prior review. Journalists for foreign news organizations must agree in writing to the military censorship system to work in Israel. This was the first censorship notification The Times had received in more than six years. Israel’s military censor informed The New York Times that material related to the missing officer had to be submitted for review, the first such notification in more than six years. International journalists must agree in writing to the censorship system in order to work in Israel. The Times did not send the censor a draft of this article before publication, but summarized over the phone its biographical references to Lieutenant Goldin.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel spoke with Secretary of State John Kerry on Friday afternoon, according to a statement from his office. “The Palestinians have blatantly and unilaterally violated the humanitarian cease-fire and attacked our soldiers after 9 a.m.” Mr. Netanyahu told Mr. Kerry, the statement said, adding that “Hamas and the other terrorist organizations in Gaza would bear the consequences of their acts.” The attack near Rafah brought to 63 the number of Israeli troops slain; two citizens and a Thai farmworker have also been felled by rocket and mortar fire. The military said more than 60 rockets had been launched by 8 p.m. Friday from Gaza, bringing the total during the conflict to 3,025.
Both Mr. Kerry and Secretary General Ban Ki-moon of the United Nations, which had arranged the cease-fire, denounced the reported capture of the soldier. Lt. Col. Peter Lerner, an Israeli military spokesman, said the Givati force had been working to decommission a tunnel under a home inside Gaza more than an hour into the cease-fire when at least two Palestinians emerged from another shaft. “One came out shooting after the other one blew himself up,” Colonel Lerner said. “We were in defensive positions. They clearly abused the situation to carry out the attack, under the cover of the humanitarian window.”
Mr. Ban, who has been especially critical of Israel over the civilian deaths in Gaza, said in a statement that if Hamas was responsible, it would “constitute a grave violation of the cease-fire, and one that is likely to have very serious consequences for the people of Gaza, Israel and beyond.” Mr. Ban also said such behavior would “call into question the credibility of Hamas’ assurances to the United Nations.” Israel sent text messages to area residents to remain in their homes as forces rushed farther into Rafah, bombarding it from the ground and air to block the captors’ escape.
The cease-fire came as a surprise and was announced in a statement by Mr. Kerry in the middle of the night in India, where he had met with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and by Secretary General Ban’s office in New York. Safa, a Gaza-based news agency that has run a live blog during the war, first reported artillery fire in Rafah at 9:55 a.m. The Health Ministry spokesman announced new fatalities there at 10:10 a.m. The Qassam Brigades, Hamas’s military wing, issued a statement hours later, denying that the clash occurred after the cease-fire, but also suggesting it may not have truly accepted the terms.
In Washington, the White House added to the condemnations of the reported capture of the Israeli soldier. Mr. Obama told a news conference that he blamed Hamas for breaking the cease-fire and said the soldier must be released immediately if the organization is serious about resolving the crisis. “We emphasize that any Zionist forces violating our liberated land would be subject to our holy fighters and a legitimate target,” the statement said.
Mr. Obama also said new efforts were underway to salvage the cease-fire. “There’s a lot of anger, and a lot of despair and that’s a volatile mix, but we have to keep trying,” he told reporters. Separately, Fawzi Barhoum, a Hamas spokesman in Gaza, said, “According to the Palestinian understanding with mediating parties, it is important for the resistance to defend our people, and itself, in the case of any renewed Israeli incursions.”
Hostilities had continued overnight, with Israeli airstrikes and shelling that killed 14 Palestinians, according to Gaza health officials. Militants fired rockets into Israel until minutes before the 8 a.m. deadline. Mkhaimer Abusaada, a political scientist at Al-Azhar University in Gaza City, said that the military wing may have been purposely defying the political team’s accession to the agreement, or at least saying that if the Israelis were allowed to keep destroying tunnels, Hamas should be permitted to try to stop them.
The announcement of the cease-fire came after several shorter humanitarian truces had fallen apart over the past week. The latest cease-fire appeared to be more significant, with Israeli and Palestinian negotiators scheduled to head to Cairo this weekend for formal talks on the conflict, which has resulted in the deaths of nearly 1,600 Palestinians and 66 on the Israeli side. “It’s definitely a mess,” he said. “I think we’re going to see much worse days than those that are behind us.”
Under the terms of the temporary truce, Israeli forces were permitted to remain in place inside Gaza to continue destroying the labyrinth of tunnels that Mr. Netanyahu has said were the prime target of the Israeli ground operation. Both sides said they would respond if fired upon. The escalation was strong and sustained, with reports in Rafah of airstrikes and heavy artillery shelling past midnight, as Israel’s top ministers met for hours to consider next steps. Colonel Lerner said the operation “now has three components, not two: it’s rockets, tunnels and an abduction now.”
Bassel Qeshta, a resident of Rafah, said by telephone that the city was under heavy artillery fire and that shells were landing “like rain.” He said the Israeli forces were also carrying out airstrikes. Daniel Nisman, a former combat soldier who now runs a Tel Aviv geopolitical security company, said Israeli troops are taught that preventing an abduction is the highest priority, even if it means risking a captive soldier’s life by firing at a getaway vehicle. Protocol changed after Sergeant Shalit’s capture, Mr. Nisman said, “so a low-level commander on the ground can act” without awaiting orders, which had delayed action in that case.
“The forces are advancing into Rafah under a cover from the airplanes,” he said. “It’s to prevent a strategic setback that would ultimately impact the entire county,” he explained. “It sounds terrible, but you have to consider it within the framework of the Shalit deal. That was five years of torment for this country, where every newscast would end with how many days Shalit had been in captivity. It’s like a wound that just never heals.”
Israel has asserted throughout the Gaza campaign, now in its 25th day, that Hamas was trying to capture a soldier, presumably as a hostage to exchange for its prisoners in Israeli jails. Gilad Shalit, an Israeli soldier who was captured by militants in a cross-border raid in 2006, was held captive by Hamas for five years. He was eventually exchanged for more than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners, many of them convicted of deadly attacks against Israelis. But some Israeli analysts noted that Sergeant Shalit, who was then a corporal, was taken from Israeli territory during a calm period, while Lieutenant Goldin should be considered a prisoner of war, a potential cost of any military campaign.
In the current conflict, the Israeli military says it has found handcuffs and tranquilizers in tunnels it exposed, presumably in preparation for captures. Still, Michael Herzog, a retired general and Israel-based fellow of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, said any cease-fire discussions would be off the agenda until more information emerges about the officer’s situation.
Hamas’s military wing released video of the group’s gunmen infiltrating Israeli territory through a tunnel earlier this week and carrying out an attack against a small military outpost near the border community of Nahal Oz. Five Israeli soldiers were killed in the assault. The video appeared to show the gunmen trying to drag one of their bodies with them. The Israeli military said that attempt failed after another soldier opened fire on them. “Right now, decision-making is more tactical by nature, until we have a better feel or clue of what exactly happened to him — is he really in their hands or not,” Mr. Herzog said.
Regarding the suspected capture of Lieutenant Goldin, Amos Yadlin, a former chief of Israel’s military intelligence directorate, said, “I think that what happened here is that the details of the cease-fire were not sufficiently clarified.” “This complicates everything,” he added. “I don’t think we are in for any more so-called humanitarian cease-fires unless we see on the ground that they are holding their fire.”
In an interview with Israel Radio, Mr. Yadlin said the Israeli military would not leave Gaza until it completed the destruction of the tunnels, even during a cease-fire. “It is not completely clear to me if this was clear to Hamas,” he said.
Mr. Yadlin, who now directs the Institute for National Security Studies at Tel Aviv University, also said it was possible that the militants who emerged from the tunnel on Friday were cut off and did not know of the cease-fire. “In the absence of any command and control, “he said, “it could be that they emerged to commit a ‘preset’ attack that it had prepared earlier.”
The capture of soldiers strikes a deep chord in Israeli society, where most 18-year-olds are conscripted for up to three years of compulsory military service.
Israel’s security cabinet was expected to meet later Friday to discuss its options.
Israel Ziv, a retired Israeli general and former commander of the military’s Gaza division, said Israel would have to pursue a “new strategy” in Gaza.
“Israel will have to reassess its strategy and to move ahead,” he told reporters on Friday. There were several available plans, he said, including a step-by-step increase of pressure on the urban centers in Gaza. “If they want to prevent escalation, they have to return Hadar immediately, without any conditions,” Mr. Ziv said, referring to the captured soldier.