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Hamas armed wing publishes photo of captured Israeli soldier’s ID tag

August 2, 2023 at 11:58 am

Al-Qassam Brigades released a picture of Israeli occupation Lieutenant Hadar Goldin’s gun on the ninth anniversary of his disappearance on 01 August 2023

Al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of the Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement, Hamas, has revealed new information regarding an Israeli soldier it captured during the occupation state’s 2014 military offensive against the Gaza Strip.

The brigades published a new photo on their website of the dog tag — ID — snatched by its fighters from one of the soldiers of the elite Givati Brigade during the so-called Operation Protective Edge. The dog tag belonged to Hadar Goldin.

Al-Qassam explained that at dawn on 1 August 2014, “The enemy forces took advantage of talk about a supposed humanitarian ceasefire and penetrated more than two kilometres east of Rafah and were ambushed by our fighters.”

The ambush began at around 7:00 am, before the supposed truce, and then enemy aircraft and artillery poured fire on Palestinian civilians after 10:00 am, in flagrant violation of the truce, on the pretext that they were searching for a missing soldier.

“The [Israeli] enemy army took the body of one of the Qassam fighters who was wearing a military uniform similar to the Zionist army uniform,” revealed Al-Qassam Brigades a year after the operation. “He was identified as the martyr Walid Masoud, one of the members of the group that clashed with the enemy soldiers east of Rafah.” The Israelis apparently believed that it was the body of army officer Hadar Goldin.

In the first comment on the new information published by the Hamas armed wing, Hadar’s brother Tzur said, “This is more propaganda by Hamas. For nine years they have been spreading propaganda to spread fear among the settlers.”

Al-Qassam Brigades hold four Israeli prisoners, including two soldiers who were captured during the war on the Gaza Strip in the summer of 2014, Goldin and Shaul Aron. The other two, Avraham Mengistu and Hisham Al-Sayed, entered the Gaza Strip under uncertain circumstances. Hamas has not disclosed the fate of the four detainees, and their whereabouts remains unknown.

READ: Hamas calls for Palestinian unity at time of division in occupation state