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Day 14 – IDF Death Toll Stands at 25; Tunnels Discovered; Possible Humanitarian Truce

by TheTower.org Staff |

The second week of Operation Protective Edge came to an end today. It was also the end of the third day of ground operations inside Gaza.

In addition to 13 soldiers killed Sunday, seven more IDF soldiers were killed today. Four of them were killed when terrorists infiltrated Israel through a “terror tunnel.” The death toll for Israeli soldiers during Protective Edge now stands at 25.

The seven were named as Lt. Col. Dolev Kedar, 38 from Modi’in; SS. Tal Yifrach, 21, from Rishon Lezion; SSgt. Yuval Dagan, 22, from Kfar Sava; Sgt. Nadav Goldmacher, 23, from Beersheba; SFC. Baynesain Kasahun, 39 from Netivot; Sec. Lt. Yuval Haiman, 21 from Efrat; and SS Jordan Ben-Simon, 22 from Ashkelon.

Four of the seven were killed by a rocket-propelled grenade, fired by Hamas gunmen who emerged from a tunnel dug from Gaza into Israel near Kibbutz Nir Am. The Hamas cell, clad in IDF uniforms, emerged from the tunnel, and waited for an approaching IDF jeep before opening fire, killing the IDF officer and the three other soldiers in the vehicle.

Haaretz reports:

The Israel Defense Forces uncovered at least 40 tunnels in Gaza territory over the weekend and arrested 13 Hamas militants, who have been brought to Israel for interrogation. A senior IDF officer said over the weekend the vast majority of the tunnels that Israeli troops are currently trying to locate and neutralize have already been attacked from the air. The goal for the troops on the ground, he said, is to ensure the tunnels cannot be made operational again in the near future.

Haaretz profiled the two American “lone soldiers,” Sean Carmeli and Max Steinberg, who were killed Sunday.

Steinberg, a Los Angeles native, is described by friends as having fallen in love with Israel on a 10-day Birthright trip. He left his parents, brother and sister in California in 2012, signed up for Michve Alon, a program aimed at getting immigrants ready for the IDF, and started training for the Golani Brigade, one of the army’s most highly-decorated infantry units in July 2013.

Carmeli, who grew up in South Padre Island, Texas, was a less typical “lone soldier.” The son of Israelis who moved from Israel to Texas, at age 16 he moved with his family to the central Israeli city of Ra’anana. His parents returned to Texas periodically for business, leaving their son in the care of his older siblings. After studying at a yeshiva in Jerusalem, he enlisted in the IDF, where he served in Golani.

The Jerusalem Post reports that according to Arab television stations, the announcement of a humanitarian ceasefire agreement is likely to be made Tuesday in Cairo.

Today The Tower covered Hamas’ abortive attempts to hack Israeli websites, noting, “Instead of causing fear – as intended – Israelis have reposted the messages with corrections and tips on how to better construct a threatening message.”

An attempted infiltration via a terror tunnel was stopped, leading to a lockdown of nearby communities in Israel’s south. Though ten terrorists involved in the attack were killed, four of the seven IDF soldiers involved in the battle lost their lives.

Yesterday, Secretary of State John Kerry expressed his support for Operation Protective Edge, saying that “Israel is under siege by a terrorist organization.” In a retort to host Candy Crowley of CNN, who had pressed Kerry on whether he was “comfortable” with Israel’s actions, Kerry responded that Hamas used human shields “precisely to elicit the kind of question you just asked.”

Today, another Israeli attack on arms in Sudan was reported. Sudan has been an intermediate point of arms shipments from Iran to Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

Congressman Brad Sherman (D-Calif.) used an appearance on Al Jazeera to rebuke the station and its patron, the emirate of Qatar, for contributing to “war crimes” through their financial and political support of Hamas.

Anti-Israel protests have turned uncivil and ugly in France, Germany, Turkey, Calgary and elsewhere. In March France’s interior minister Manuel Valls said, “Criticism of Israel that is based on anti-Zionism — that’s anti-Semitism today, this is the refuge of those who do not accept the State of Israel.” His observation seems especially apt now.

[Photo: idfnadesk / YouTube ]

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