JERUSALEM (AP) — The Hamas militant group says it is holding “dozens” of Israeli soldiers captive in the Gaza Strip.
Abu Obeida, spokesman for the group's military wing, said the soldiers, including some officers, were captured during a surprise infiltration into southern Israel on Saturday.If true, the claim could set the stage for complicated negotiations on a prisoner swap with Israel, which is holding thousands of Palestinians in its prisons.THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.
At least 198 people in the Gaza Strip have been killed and at least 1,610 wounded in Israel’s retaliation, the Palestinian Health Ministry said. Airstrikes in the evening flattened a 14-story residential tower that also holds Hamas offices in central Gaza City. Israeli fired a warning just before, and the number of casualties was not immediately known.
“We are at war,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a televised address, declaring a mass army mobilization. “Not an ‘operation,’ not a ‘round,’ but at war.” At a meeting of top security officials Saturday, Netanyahu said the first priority was to “cleanse" southern Israel of infiltrators, followed by a greater retaliation in Gaza.
The abduction of Israeli civilians and soldiers also raised a particularly thorny issue for Israel. Israel has a history of making heavily lopsided exchanges in order to bring captive Israelis home. “With rockets we somehow feel safer, knowing that we have the Iron Dome and our safe rooms. But knowing that terrorists are walking around communities is a different kind of fear,” said Mirjam Reijnen, a 42-year-old volunteer firefighter and mother of three in Nahal Oz.
Lebanon’s Hezbollah militant group congratulated Hamas, praising the attack as a response to “Israeli crimes.” The group said its command in Lebanon was in contact with Hamas about the operation.
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