Hamas, Tibi say Israel misled world about soldier presumed captured

Israel "deceived the world when it claimed the kidnapping of a soldier and then later admitted that he was killed," says Hamas spokesman.

By LAHAV HARKOV
MK Ahmed Tibi at PA event 311 (photo credit: Courtesy of PMW)
MK Ahmed Tibi at PA event 311
(photo credit: Courtesy of PMW)
Hamas and MK Ahmed Tibi accused Israel of misleading world leaders about the presumed capture of Lt. Hadar Goldin, whom the IDF declared killed in action on Saturday night.
Senior Hamas Spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri wrote on his Facebook wall Sunday afternoon: “Hamas accuses the occupation of deceiving the world when it claimed the kidnapping of a soldier and then later admitted that he was killed in a clash, taking advantage of the breach of the [cease-fire] to massacre Rafah.”
On Friday, the IDF said Goldin had been abducted. Hamas later claimed they did so before a ceasefire came into effect at 8 a.m., and then denied it had captured a soldier at all. On Saturday night, after examining DNA evidence and reviewing halachic considerations, Chief Rabbi of the IDF Brig.-Gen.
Rafi Peretz, declared Goldin dead.
Abu Zuhri called on UN Secretary- General Ban Ki-Moon and the international community “to correct their positions after the discovery of Israel’s lying and deception.”
Similarly, Tibi wrote in an open letter to US President Barack Obama posted on Facebook Sunday: “It seems the Israeli soldier Hadar Goldin is not captured or ‘kidnapped’ as the Israeli [prime minister] claimed. Someone misled you, sir.”
“On the other [hand], hundreds of Palestinian civilians, mainly women and children were brutally killed in reaction to his capture,” Tibi wrote.
Names and ages of the dead listed by Al-Jazeera, however, show most Gazans killed in Operation Protective Edge are men in their late teens through thirties, according to data analysis by the Elder of Ziyon blog.
Tibi posited that Obama values the life of one Israeli “occupation soldier” more than all the Palestinians killed in Gaza.
The UAL-Ta’al MK wrote that Obama’s response to what was then thought to be a hostage situation was to call for the soldier to be released unconditionally and that the administration called the capture barbaric.
“Am I right when I claim that you do believe and act as if the life of one Israeli [occupation soldier] is far more important than all the Palestinians killed and massacred by those soldiers? And am I correct when I assume that the bombing of schools and hospitals is not ‘barbaric’ in the same way as that ‘barbaric kidnapping of one soldier?’” Tibi wrote.
Then the MK listed names of families which he says have been “totally eradicated by [American] missiles” and asked: “Do they deserve life and freedom, sir? Do they?”


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