Word: shalit
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...Palestinian militants emerged from a tunnel dug 10 yds. deep and stretching from a private house on the Palestinian side of the border to the rear of the Israeli base. Two of the militants fired a rocket-propelled grenade at a tank carrying four Israeli soldiers, including Shalit. Two soldiers jumped from the tank and were shot dead. The militants dragged Shalit away and smuggled him through a hole cut in the fence separating Gaza and Israel. When reinforcements finally arrived, they found Shalit's bloody vest, suggesting he had been wounded in the grab...
...Israelis believe Shalit was taken to a hiding place that had been prepared in advance, probably a cellar or cave under a house in the area surrounding Rafah, a teeming city of refugee camps of some 250,000 people. Three separate groups claimed responsibility for the abduction, including the military wing of Hamas, which Israel charged was acting on the directions of Khaled Mashaal, the Hamas supremo in Damascus (see box). Two days into the Gaza incursion, Olmert ordered Israeli forces to halt their advance to allow for a mediation push by Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. On Friday, Mubarak claimed...
That, in part, explains the ardor of the Israelis' effort to find Shalit. Olmert, who took office after Ariel Sharon's stroke in January, had little choice but to go into Gaza, given the Israeli public's deep identification with the army, in which most Israeli citizens have served. Lacking any counterpart on the Palestinian side that it trusts, Israel has taken a "shake the trees" approach, putting as much pressure as possible on the government and civilian population in the hopes that someone would turn on Hamas. But it's difficult to see how some Israeli tactics, particularly...
...more militant factions, which would prefer to abandon the political process and return to armed struggle. "This will help Hamas because they have been saying they do not trust the Israelis," says Saied Zourob, an official in Gaza who belongs to Fatah, the party of Abbas, who called for Shalit's release. "Abbas has been saying that people should respect them and the peace process, but now the Israelis are pushing people toward Hamas and the resistance...
Mashaal, who lives in Damascus under Syrian protection, is suspected by the Israelis of having ordered militants to kidnap Corporal Gilad Shalit and take him to the Gaza Strip, although Hamas and other Arab officials insist Mashaal was not directly involved. The Israelis believe he ordered the high-stakes hostage taking to scupper attempts by the Hamas-led government to join in unity talks with moderate Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas that would implicitly recognize Israel's right to exist...