Gaza: The Islamic Hamas movement's armed wing, al-Qassam Brigades, Monday claimed that an Israeli soldier kidnapped by its fighters was killed in an Israeli airstrike in northern Gaza Strip.

In a statement sent to media through e-mail, the group said four of its fighters who succeeded in kidnapping the Israeli soldier were also killed in the attack.

"As the group was about to leave the area and take the kidnapped Israeli soldier, an Israeli warplane fired a rocket at the group and killed the soldier, and the fighters," the statement said.

"This time we failed to kidnap an Israeli soldier, but we are still planning to kidnap more in the future and we are certain that our attempts will succeed," the al-Qassam Brigades said.

Since Wednesday last week, Israel has been giving the Gaza population an everyday unilateral humanitarian cessation of attacks for three hours to enable them to move and get their needs of humanitarian supplies.

Local medics said that 10 Palestinians were killed and 20 wounded during Israeli attacks on Monday.

More than 900 people, civilians and Hamas militants, were killed and about 4,000 wounded since the beginning of the Israeli offensive on Gaza Dec 27.

 

Source : IANS