PALESTINIAN FIGHTERS CLAIM 52 ISRAELI SOLDIERS DEATH
Gaza City, 25 Ramadan 1435/23 July 2014 (MINA) – Izzuddin Al-Qassam Brigade, the military wing of the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas announced until Tuesday (22/7) at least 52 Israeli occupation soldiers including its officers, were killed in a fierce land battle with the al-Qassam fighters that now has entered the 16th day.
This amount does not include the Israeli occupation soldiers who were attacked in their tanks and some other military targets, Al-Qassam said in a statement, MINA correspondent reported from Gaza.
Al-Qassam confirms most officers and soldiers of the Israeli occupation forces killed were hailed from Golani elite forces, super elite forces Egooz, and Paratroopers.
The resistance movement explained further that the fighters also have ensured the destruction of 36 Israeli occupation tanks, 35 artillery guns, and 33 refill bombs and shot dead 11 Israeli soldiers.
Meanwhile, the Israeli occupation forces denied the number as saying the death toll reaches 27 soldiers in the 15-day Israeli offensive against the Palestinians in Gaza since July 7, 2014.
The Israeli army says one of its soldiers has been missing in combat with Hamas forces in the blockaded Gaza Strip and is presumed dead, Press TV quoted by Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA) as reporting Wednesday.
Israel’s Channel 10 News said on Tuesday that the military believed the trooper was killed along with six other soldiers in an attack on an armored vehicle on Sunday.
The Ezzeddin al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas, said on Sunday that Palestinian fighters seized an Israeli soldier, identified as Shaul Aron/Oron.
Abu Ubaida, the spokesman of the Hamas’s armed wing, said the soldier was captured in heavy fighting and displayed a photo ID and the army serial number of the Israeli soldier.
An Israeli military statement on Tuesday said the army had completed the identification of six of the soldiers killed, adding “efforts to identify the seventh soldier are ongoing and have yet to be determined.”
Earlier in the day, the Israeli army said two soldiers were killed in combat in the Gaza Strip on Monday, raising the number of the troops killed in the 15-day Israeli offensive against the Palestinian sliver to 27.
However, Palestinians say the death toll is higher. Al-Qassam Brigades said that its forces killed 15 Israeli forces in eastern Gaza City on Monday and over 40 of them so far.
Two Israeli civilians have also been killed by rocket fire.
Top Hamas leader in Gaza Ismail Haniyeh has said Gaza would become “a graveyard for Israeli soldiers.” (T/Nur Ikhwan/P03/E01)
Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA)
