WASHINGTON — After rejecting several offers for a cease-fire and even violating a recent cease-fire, Hamas finally agreed to a 72-hour ceasing of hostilities between their militants and the Israeli army.
Reuters reported that the Israeli army withdrew from the beleaguered Gaza region to honor their part of the agreement. They failed to note how during the last cease-fire, an Israeli soldier was kidnapped and whose actual fate was not known for days, with two of his fellow soldiers killed by a Hamas suicide bomber.
According to the Times of Israel, Goldin and his army unit were investigating an underground tunnel. Israel says the underground tunnels are the focus of their military operations and have been used (or will be) to conduct cross-border ambushes and kidnappings. The unit was going to demolish the tunnel, which the army has been doing the past month, before being ambushed by Hamas fighters.
The soldier’s name was Hadar Goldin (whose parents are pictured above) and Israeli army confirmed the news last Saturday based on investigations in the tunnel in question. But, Hamas denied that they kidnapped and killed Goldin.
Yet, in the Reuters summary, it painted a picture of a razed Gazan community and ignored the plight of Israelis as well as the extremist Islamic rhetoric of Hamas:
Sitting on a pile of debris on the edge of the northern town of Beit Lahiya, Zuhair Hjaila, a 33-year-old father of four, said he had lost his house and his supermarket.
“This is complete destruction,” he said. “I never thought I would come back to find an earthquake zone.”
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