Channel 4 News is reporting that an Israeli terrorist soldier captured alive by Hamas fighters in Gaza is a British-Israeli cousin of Israel’s defence minister.
Rumours began circulating about the captured soldier this morning, and at around lunchtime the Israeli military spokesman announced that they feared a soldier had indeed been taken.
The Israeli Defence Forces have named the captured soldier as Lieutenant Hadar Goldin, 23, from Kfar Saba.
Channel 4 News understands that the soldier is from a family of British Jewish immigrants. It is also understood that he is a cousin – either second or third – of Israeli’s defence minister, Moshe Ya’alon.
The IDF spokesman said that around 9.30am Israeli soldiers came under fire in an area around the border of the southern Gaza Strip and “there’s a fear” that during the incident a soldier “has been kidnapped by the terrorists”.
The military said the situation is still evolving and that the IDF is making “big efforts, operational and intelligence, to locate the soldier”.
Captured soldiers are very valuable for the Palestinian resistance. Israelis were horrified when another terrorist occupation soldier, Gilad Shalit, was previously captured in the Gaza area and held by Hamas. He was released in October 2011 after five years and four months – but only in exchange for 1,027 Palestinian prisoners.
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Meanwhile, the UK Foreign Office has confirmed that it is “looking into” reports an Israeli soldier missing in Gaza has dual UK-Israeli nationality.
Israeli officials said he disappeared when troops were attacked while trying to destroy a suspected Hamas tunnel.
Two Israeli soldiers died in the incident where 2nd Lt Goldin was reportedly captured, in southern Gaza. The Gaza health ministry said dozens of people were killed by Israeli shelling in the area shortly after the incident.
Some 1,460 Palestinians, mostly civilians, and 63 Israelis, mostly soldiers, have died in the latest conflict.
British Muslim organisations have consistently said that the British government should crack down on its citizens joining the IDF, especially as it is currently cracking down on its citizens going to fight in Syria.
