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Hamas claimed it had kidnapped an IDF soldier, prompting celebrations in the streets of Gaza, Hevron and Jerusalem. Israel's UN ambassador denied on Sunday that an Israeli soldier had been abducted by Hamas terrorists in the course of the fighting at the Shejaiya neighborhood. "There is no kidnapped Israeli soldier and those rumors are untrue," said Ambassador Ron Prosor when asked about the kidnapping. The armed wing of the Palestinian Hamas group claimed late Sunday that it had kidnapped an Israeli soldier, prompting celebrations in the streets of Gaza City.

A video released by the IDF Sunday shows soldiers in action, destroying a tunnel dug by Hamas terrorists into Israel. The video shows the soldiers stringing explosives and blowing the tunnel up. “This is one of the first tunnels we found during this operation,” a soldier tells the camera. “It was dug in order to infiltrate Israeli communities. The IDF said Sunday that in three days of the ground campaign in Operation Protective Edge, soldiers had found and destroyed dozens of tunnels dug by Hamas terrorists into Israeli territory. Video

Thirteen IDF soldiers have been killed since Saturday night, the IDF said. The process of identifying the bodies is still ongoing. Golani Brigade, armor and engineering corps forces were met with effective close range guerrilla actions in Shejaiya, Gaza. The dead are apparently all from the Golani Brigade. The Brigade's commander, Col. Rasan Alian, was also lightly injured. According to Channel 2, there were several incidents that involved IDF deaths that occurred one after the other after midnight. In the most serious incident, around 1:00 a.m., an armored personnel carrier hit a large explosive charge, or may have been hit...

Send Pizza and Soda (Pepsi or Coca-Cola) to active duty Israeli Soldiers Once again our homeland is under attack. Missiles from Gaza are flying on our southern cities, and again the civilians are in the front line. We are shifting our efforts to the south making sure the soldiers know that even though the media might say one thing, they have lots of support and love from all over the world. Hundreds of pies and other treats are going out to the soldiers, and once again per request we are adding the option to send care packages with toiletries to...

Hamas threatened Israel on Thursday evening and warned that it will pay a "high price" for launching a ground assault on Gaza. "The start of the Israeli ground attack on Gaza is a dangerous step, the consequences of which have not been calculated," Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum said in a statement quoted by AFP. "Israel will pay a high price and Hamas is ready for the confrontation," he declared. "With this action the Israeli government seeks to restore the morale of its soldiers and the morale of its army leadership - a leadership that is collapsing because of the qualitative...

The Prime Minister's Office has issued a statement that says the IDF has embarked on a ground assault into Gaza against Hamas's tunnels. The operation is deemed as "limited" and will probably not go further than two or three kilometers into Gaza's territory. This is deemed to be deep enough in enemy land to find the openings into Hamas's attack tunnels, like the one that was used in Thursday morning's infiltration into Israel by 13 terrorists. Egypt, meanwhile, has issued a statement saying that Hamas is to blame for the possible deaths of hundreds of Gazan civilians. The statement appears...

Analysis: Islamist organizations in Gaza are still negotiating over negotiations, while in Israel, defense chiefs are seeing start of unrest against Hamas. The negotiations for a ceasefire between Israel and Gaza are complicated and are destined to be drawn out. This is mainly due to Hamas' determination to leave the battlefield with clear achievements for its military wing, especially in the eyes of the Gaza population. These achievements should be clear enough to justify to the Palestinian street – in Judea and Samaria as well - the escalation of the fire on Israel, which resulted in Operation Protective Edge. Also,...

The IDF launched an investigation into the incident in which four Palestinian children were killed on a Gaza beach Wednesday afternoon. "The inquiry into the event by the IDF is ongoing at this time. Initial findings show that terror activists were in the area that was attacked and that it served as a launching point for terror activities." The IDF statement said that "it is a tragic event if innocent civilians were hurt in the incident." The military stressed that "it is important to remember the cynical use of Gaza Strip residents by Hamas who hold them as hostages has...

Israel resumed its heavy bombardment of Gaza on Tuesday and warned that Hamas would "pay the price" after the Islamic militant group rejected an Egyptian truce plan and instead unleashed more rocket barrages at the Jewish state. Late Tuesday, the military urged tens of thousands of residents of northern and eastern Gaza to leave their homes by Wednesday morning, presumable a prelude to air strikes there. Rocket fire from Gaza killed an Israeli man Tuesday, the first Israeli fatality in eight days of fighting....

Of course it's a shame for civilians, alas they've become all but indistinguishable from actual Hamas members after mass brainwashing of the territory's youth, who are considered military assets... And it's those same ordinary Gazans that democratically elected martially-obsessed Islamists (w/ charter sworn to destroy Israel) to be their leaders in the first place- so you could say they have it coming...  Yeah, that's a bit harsh, and actually some in Gaza are also blaming Hamas for recent escalations, asking why they brought this retaliation/pending invasion upon them, and what exactly did they expect to gain from starting a battle they can't win...

The UN's special refugee agency for Palestinians, UNRWA, reported Sunday that about 4,000 residents of northern Gaza have fled their homes after the IDF told them to do so, starting last night. In addition, about 850 Palestinians with foreign nationalities are leaving Gaza through the Erez checkpoint. Three hundred of these had already done so by the early afternoon. Israeli aircraft dropped leaflets on border areas in northern Gaza, calling on the citizens to evacuate their homes before noon Sunday as it prepared to bomb the area. The IDF warned that those who do not obey their instructions will be...

The IDF Spokesperson’s Unit has uploaded a video which shows how the IDF calls off Gaza airstrikes upon realizing that there are innocent civilians in the area. In this video, showing a planned airstrike from Thursday, the airstrike was cancelled when the pilot realized that children were near his target. During the current escalation, Hamas has openly boasted about the "success" of its strategy of using civilians as human shields, and the IDF has published extensive evidence of the practice. Hamas has been encouraging as many noncombatants as possible to "protect" its positions with their bodies.

Sunny with light missile cover in Tel Aviv this morning. I awoke to muffled thuds in the distance, Iron Dome shooting down Syrian-made missiles launched from Gaza, according to news reports. I attended the obligatory morning mixer for hotel guests at the bomb shelter, which fortunately lasted only five minutes before the all-clear sounded. I’ll write something more comprehensive on this soon — Tablet is scheduled to run my essay next Monday — but the thumbnail version is that Hamas is making a demonstration out of weakness.

Hamas has instructed Gaza residents to ignore text messages and phone calls urging them to evacuate buildings, in an apparent effort to grow its supply of "human shields." The calls and messages are sent by Israeli military officials in order to give civilians time to evacuate the area, and are communicated before the IDF targets a house terrorists were using as cover for firing missiles at Israel or for other military purposes. The Hamas-run Palestinian Authority Interior Ministry said in a message to Gaza residents that the messages "are designed to weaken our resolve and to sow panic and fear...

IDF units intercepted a Hamas commando unit that sought to infiltrate Israel from the sea at Zikim Beach, just north of the Gaza Strip, on Tuesday. Soldiers killed several terrorists, and pursued at least one more, security sources said, stressing that they were speaking as the incident continued to unfold. A senior security official said an IDF detachment was dispatched to Zikim Beach after the military detected suspicious movements in the area. The unit engaged the terrorists, and shot and killed five of them. One soldier was lightly wounded in the exchange of fire.

Tuesday on CNN's "The Situation Room," host Wolf Blitzer asked Lt. Col. Peter Lerner, the Israeli Defense Forces spokesman if Hamas stopped their aggressions if further military action could be avoided.

Israel came under a heavy barrage of rocket fire on Tuesday night, with code red sirens sounding off in central Israel, the Jerusalem area and as far North as Binyamina. More than 40 rockets were fired into Israel in the biggest ever salvo of long-range fire from Gaza. The Iron Dome rocket defense system intercepted a number of rockets and no significant injuries have been reported in the attacks. Meanwhile, 5 Hamas gunman attempted to infiltrate Israel at Zikim beach, near Gaza where they exchanged fire with IDF forces. All five terrorists were killed...

The family of Tariq Abu Khdeir, the 15-year-old Tampa boy whose brutal beating at the hands of Israeli police has made global headlines, was relieved to learn Sunday that he was released from jail. Tariq was sentenced to nine days of home detention while police investigate his involvement in violent protests that started after his cousin, Mohammed Abu Khdeir, 16, was abducted and burned alive last week in Jerusalem. Tariq’s aunt, Sanah Abu Khdeir, of Tampa, said Sunday she hopes that the boy and his parents will be home by July 16. Tariq is an American citizen of Palestinian descent....

According to reports, sites in Khan Younes, Rafah and Beit lahia were hit Air force hits Hamas, Islamic Jihad structures; 4 reported wounded; 2 rockets explode in Israel causing damage, hours after discovery of kidnapped teens’ bodies. The Israeli Air Force struck 34 targets in the Gaza Strip early Tuesday, carrying out “precision strikes” against Hamas and Islamic Jihad structures, the IDF said in a statement early Tuesday

The IDF launched extensive airstrikes in Gaza on Monday night, hitting more than 30 targets in the Hamas-controlled region. The IDF said in a statement that 34 terrorist targets throughout the region were targeted in the strikes. The statement noted that the airstrikes were in retaliation for rocket fire on southern Israel. “The IDF will continue to act decisively and as necessary against any party, until peace and the normal lives of the residents of the State of Israel are restored,” said the statement, which placed the responsibility for the rocket fire on Hamas and its different branches. Earlier Monday...