Unbelievable Wussies: US to Hamas - Don’t attack Israeli troops

US calls attack on Israeli soldiers in Gaza 'barbaric'

The United States has accused Hamas of launching a "barbaric" attack on Israeli troops and called on the Palestinian resistance movement to immediately release the Israeli soldier they have captured.

On Friday, the Israeli military confirmed that one of its soldiers was captured by Palestinian fighters in the Gaza town of Rafah. The captured soldier was identified as 23-year-old Hadar Goldin.

Some 1,500 Palestinians have been killed, including women and children, and thousands others injured by the Israeli regime’s offensive against the coastal enclave despite pressure from the international community. The United Nations says over 80 percent of the fatalities in Gaza have been civilians.

The military wing of the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas, the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, has been firing retaliatory rockets, hitting Israeli cities and killing dozens of its soldiers.

According to one new report, the Qassam Brigades said that it has captured an Israeli soldier. A Hamas official said the soldier was captured before a temporary ceasefire came into effect on Friday.

White House spokesman Josh Earnest urged Hamas to release the Israeli soldier immediately, calling the reported attack “a rather barbaric violation of the ceasefire agreement.”

Israel and Hamas had agreed to an unconditional 72-hour ceasefire which took effect at 8:00 a.m. local time (0500 GMT) on Friday. However, according to Palestinian sources, Israeli forces violated the truce shortly after it took effect, killing four people in the town of Rafah south of Gaza.

Earnest said Washington has called on the international community to condemn the Hamas move. He said that US Secretary of State John Kerry had already spoken to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu about the next steps in the Gaza crisis.

He added that the attack “is worthy of the strongest condemnation from the United States, and it certainly deserves the strong condemnation of the international community.”

The Israeli military has now decided to execute the Hannibal Directive. The order allows any action necessary to release the captured soldier, including endangering his life, to resolve the situation.

The Israeli military says it has so far lost nearly 61 of its troops in clashes with Palestinian resistance fighters, but Hamas says over 146 Israeli soldiers have been killed in the past 24 days.

 

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