QASSAM BRIGADES HOLDS ISRAELI SOLDIER HOSTAGE

Gaza City, 23 Ramadhan 1435/21 July 2014 (MINA) –  The Ezzeddin al-Qassam Brigades, the military arm of Hamas, said on Sunday that it managed to hold an Israeli occupation soldier hostage during clashes with the Israeli occupation army in the Gaza Strip.

Thousands of Palestinians took to the streets to celebrate the ability of the brigades to hold the Israeli occupation soldier hostage.

“Qassam Brigades managed to hold Israeli occupation soldier Shaul Aaron hostage during clashes in the Gaza Strip,” brigades spokesman Abu Ubaidah said in a televised address, Middle East Monitor (MEMO) quoted by Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA) as reporting, Monday.

The brigades spokesman also mentioned the military card number of the soldier.

Thousands of Palestinians, meanwhile, took to the streets to celebrate the ability of the brigades to hold the Israeli occupation soldier hostage.

Since July 7, Israel has been pounding the Gaza Strip with air and naval bombardments with the stated aim of halting rocket attacks from it. Of the 435 people killed since the Israeli operation began, more than a third were women and children, Qudra said, indicating that 112 of the victims were minors, 41 were women and 25 were elderly.

Israeli occupation military operation, dubbed operation “Protective Edge,” is the self-proclaimed Jewish state’s third major offensive against Gaza in the last six years.

A spokesman said in a televised address the Israeli soldier Shaul Aaron is in the hands of the Qassam Brigades.

Israeli occupation military: they’re investigating

A spokeswoman for the Israeli occupation military says they’re aware of the claim and are investigating.

Reporters on the ground say there were celebrations in the streets of West Bank cities Ramallah and Hebron following Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades’ announcement, with Palestinians shooting guns in the air and praising Hamas, which last kidnapped an Israeli soldier, Gilad Shalit, in 2006.

The claims followed Israeli strikes on that killed 97 people, in the latest round of attacks on northern Gaza, sending thousands more fleeing in terror in the deadliest assault on the enclave in five years.

The day of violence hiked the overall Palestinian death toll to 435 since the start of a major military campaign on July 8, health officials say.

The vast majority of Sunday’s dead were in Shejaiya between Gaza City and the Israeli border, with at least 62 people killed there in a blistering bombardment which began overnight, emergency services spokesman Ashraf al-Qudra said.

(T/E01/IR)

Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA)