Gaza/Jerusalem: Renewed Israeli shelling killed at least 30 people in Gaza on Sunday after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to keep up pressure on Hamas even after the army completes its core mission of destroying a tunnel network that extends into Israel.
Israel declared dead a soldier feared abducted by Hamas militants and repositioned its troops in the Gaza Strip, telling many residents they could return home after entire neighbourhoods were devastated in nearly a month of fighting.
Israel intensified attacks in the area of Rafah along the border with Egypt, where 23-year-old officer Hadar Goldin was feared captured there on Friday, shortly after a previous ceasefire had taken effect.
The military later said Goldin, who was dragged by militants into a tunnel after two of his comrades were killed by a suicide bomber, had also died in action.
“The findings on the ground, the items that we found led us to the conclusion that he was killed in the initial attack,” said military spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Peter Lerner.
Lerner said that ground forces were being redeployed in the Gaza Strip, though he gave no details of their new positions, and added that residents from a number of evacuated neighbourhoods had been told they can return.More than 30 tunnels and dozens of access shafts have been unearthed and were being blown up.
“We have proceeded with the mission in order to eliminate those (tunnels) that we have found and we expect to complete that within a short period of time, probably within the next 24 hours or so,” he said. (Reuters)
