3:00pm More IDF news — in the early afternoon, Givati and Tank troops were working to uncover terror tunnels and identified a number of terrorists emerging from a tunnel. The tanks opened fire with tank shells, and the terrorists ran to a nearby house. More shells were fired at the house, killing 3 terrorists. The IDF then blew up the terror tunnel.

2:51pm A short while ago, IDF Tzanchanim (Paratroopers) identified 4 terrorists in a house, preparing to shoot an anti-tank weapon. They coordinated with an IDF tank unit in the area which opened fire with tank shells on the house. The entire house collapsed and the terrorists were killed.

Additionally, a Givati unit located 150 mortars and an additional terror tunnel.

1:23pm From the IDF SPOX:

Givati combat troop and IDF tanks were shot at from a house in Gaza. The IDF returned fire. A terrorist was identified firing and then leaving the house and was picked up by a car for him to escape. The car was locked on by the IAF who fired at it….a direct hit on the car was verified.

3:31pm IDF Spox notifications:

Hamas terrorists killed two IDF soldiers during the suspected kidnapping of 2nd Lt. Goldin this morning.

We suspect that a group of Hamas terrorists, including a suicide attacker, kidnapped 2nd. Lt. Goldin at 9:30AM & dragged him into a tunnel.

If our suspicions about today’s events are accurate, Hamas took advantage of the latest ceasefire in order to kidnap an IDF soldier.

3:15pm Released for Publication – 2 soldiers were killed this morning in battles with Hamas. Their families have been informed.

3:00pm The name of the kidnapped soldier has been released for publication by the IDF:

Hadar ben Hedva Leah

2nd Lt. Hadar Goldin (23), Givati, From Kfar Saba

2nd Lt. Hadar Goldin

2:21pm The IDF is continuing to stream forces to the area of the alleged kidnapping and has surrounded the entire area.

The IDF is continuing in full force to ascertain the safety of the soldier and his return….on both the operational and intelligence areas.

9:03pm Israel’s two chief Rabbis issued a joint proclamation/halachic ruling that IDF soldiers involved in combat in Gaza may not fast, or observe any of the mourning customs this coming Tisha B’av.

The 9th of Av fast day, which commemorates the destruction of the two Jewish temples in Jerusalem, on the Temple Mount.

Because they are in combat and fighting on behalf of the nation of Israel, they are fully exempt so that they can fight properly, with full strength and valor.http://www.jewishpress.com/wp-admin/edit.php

UPDATE: Despite the report on both Channel 1 and from an IDF source, the JewishPress.com has been informed by a knowledgeable source that the booby-trapped building was in fact a former Red Cross clinic, and not an active UNRWA clinic as previously claimed. Our source informs us that while the building is not registered as a UNRWA facility, the IDF soldiers saw an UNRWA sign on the building identifying it as such, which raises the question, why was an UNRWA sign on a Hamas booby-trapped building.

We are investigating this further and will update readers when we have more information.

The remaining details of the report remain unchanged.

Once again UNRWA facilities have been used in terror attacks.

Three IDF soldiers died and 15 others were wounded Wednesday morning trying to safeguard an UNRWA clinic while destroying a terror tunnel in Gaza.

The only problem was that the clinic, which belonged to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) itself was the terror trap — a fact first reported by Amir Ben-Shalom of Israel’s Channel 1 television — and the tunnel was inside the clinic.

Staff Sgt. Matan Gotlib, 21, of Rishon Lezion, and Staff Sgt. Omer Chai, 21, of Savion paid the ultimate price along with one other comrade, whose name has yet to be released. Their passing brings the IDF death toll to 56 in Operation Protective Edge.

The elite Maglan unit had sent in sniffing dogs as a precaution, and a small robot to minimize damage to the clinic, located in Khan Younis, prior to detonating the charge that would destroy the tunnel whose entrance was found inside the building.

But explosives were rigged to the passage and they were detonated instead. The building collapsed on to the soldiers.

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) facilities have become death traps in Gaza, with three of the agency’s schools proven to be weapons storage facilities for Hamas and allied terrorists.

Three UNRWA schools have been found housing rockets. In one school, UNRWA officials handed over the rockets to Hamas, and in the second school the rockets ‘disappeared’ (probably somewhere over Israel).

UNRWA officials allegedly did not tell an angry United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon where the collection of ordnance went.

The thing to consider is this - you can’t exactly dig out a tunnel, with its entrance inside a building without the people in the building noticing.

Three UNRWA schools storing rockets. A UNRWA medical clinic with a bomb-laden terror tunnel.

The United Nations has some serious answering to do.

Meanwhile, With IDF troops in Gaza fighting terrorists on all sides, soldiers returned fire towards the source of mortar fire midday Wednesday when their position was shelled in Khan Younis.

According to UNRWA, one of its schools was shelled, killing 15 and wounding 90.

Did the attack result from Israeli tank fire? The details aren’t clear.

But White House spokesperson Bernadette Meehan condemned the shelling and said the U.S. was “extremely concerned” that thousands of Palestinian Arabs are not safe in UN-designated shelters in Gaza.

Perhaps President Barack Obama should have a chat with UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, and suggest he talk with the head of UNRWA about how to prevent terrorists from infiltrating buildings under his care.

At least Meehan had the good sense to condemn “those responsible” for hiding weapons in UN facilities in Gaza. She said the current escalation shows the need for a cease fire as soon as possible.

Just to make the point, probably, Israel’s Security Cabinet actually did tell its forces to hold their fire for four hours in order to allow a humanitarian cease fire, from 3pm to 7pm Wednesday afternoon.

The score — from the Gaza side of course — was 26 rockets and missiles fired by terrorists at Israeli civilian communities, including two intercepted by the Iron Dome anti-missile defense system directly over the cities of Ashkelon and Netivot.

Such statements from the White House demonstrate a disconnect from the reality in the region.

The fact is, Hamas deliberately operates behind its human shields in order to elicit exactly the kind of naive – or maybe not so naive – condemnations issued by the White House. That is why it plants all of its military installations in civilian structures; in private homes, in children’s playgrounds, in schools, parks, mosques, hospitals and cemeteries. Those all have been mapped out and shown to world leaders over and over again.
UNRWA is rapidly becoming a liability in the region, rather than the humanitarian aid organization it was intended to be.

One school might be used for storing missiles, possibly, without the knowledge of its administration. Two? Hmmm….

Three?? No way. That’s already a pattern of complicit approval, closing eyes in order to avoid having to deal with a problem that won’t go away. Or worse, a sign of fear that perhaps there’s a risk to lives (maybe their own?) from those who planted the missiles in the first place.

Booby-trapped clinic with a tunnel planted inside? Like I said — you can’t hide that kind of digging and construction from the people working there, day after day, night after night. It’s just not possible.

Israeli deputy foreign minister Tzachi HaNegbi told reporters Wednesday that Israel has plenty of evidence that Hamas is using UNRWA facilities – including its schools – for terrorist activities.

One would think that a tunnel entrance in an UNRWA clinic, booby-trapped, might be a bit of a wake-up call as well.

The deputy foreign minister also noted that three times UNRWA itself admitted the missiles were hidden in the schools. “Who knows how many were not found,” he pointed out, adding that they were given right back to the same terror organization that started the war in the first place by firing rockets at Israeli civilians. “Instead of blaming and condemning Israel, UNRWA should make a real effort to stop being manipulated and used by the terrorist organization,” he said.

So why is the Obama White House rapping Israel on the knuckles? What’s that all about?

At least 20 are dead after a United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) school was hit by tank fire in Jabalya, still referred to by the United Nations as a ‘refugee camp.’

The school has been serving as a humanitarian shelter for displaced Gazans forced to leave their homes for their own safety when the IDF attacks military targets planted by Hamas in residential areas. Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorists maintain an open policy of using families and friends as human shields in active combat against the IDF.

The incident occurred just hours after inspectors discovered another weapons cache at an UNRWA school in the region for the third time in two weeks. UNRWA officials asked a munitions exporter to remove the rockets at the site and ‘make the school safe,’ according to spokesman Chris Gunness, who said the fighting in the region made it impossible for munitions experts to access the site. Gunness condemned those who risk civilian lives by placing rockets at a school run by the international aid organization, noting its facilities are intended to be neutral and not involved in the fighting.

“We condemn the group or groups who endangered civilians by placing these munitions in our school,” Gunness wrote in a statement. “This is yet another flagrant violation of the neutrality of our premises. We call on all the warring parties to respect the inviolability of UN property.”

But he did not hold Hamas – the ruling government in Gaza – responsible for the incident, nor did he mention where UNRWA had sent the missiles, now for the third time.

Officials have been unable to clarify details about the incident at the UNRWA school in northern Gaza due to the fierce fighting taking place in the area. The IDF has not been able to confirm the claim by Gaza medical workers that Israeli tank fire was responsible for the shelling, and the incident remains under investigation.

More than once, Israel has been blamed for artillery fire on a Gaza target, only for the matter later to be clarified that the true source of the fire was a local terrorist group.

UNRWA has found a third set of rockets in a one of their schools, according to Channel 2′s Ehud Yaari.

We’re sure they’re shocked.

UNRWA returned the first set of rockets to the  local authorities (Hamas).

The second set of rockets disappeared (presumably to somewhere over Israel).

We’re now waiting to see what happens with this latest set of rockets.

Has Israel been forced by U.S. President Barack Obama to return to the ‘tit-for-tat’ retaliation strategy that ruled the south prior to Operation Protective Edge?

The IDF destroyed two concealed rocket launchers and a weapons factory in northern and central Gaza late Monday morning, “in retaliation for this morning’s missile attack on Ashkelon,” the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit said.

However, Hamas terrorists didn’t miss a beat, and launched another barrage of missiles at the Ashkelon Coastal region at about 12:40 pm.

To date, Gaza terrorists have fired some 2,540 rockets and missiles at Israeli civilians since the start of Operation Protective Edge.

The IDF appears to have been forced into standby mode by the political establishment due to pressure from the White House. The Obama administration led a demand by the United Nations Security Council Sunday that Israel carry out another ‘humanitarian’ cease fire.

Hamas has violated every cease fire in which Israel has participated, resulting in the flow of Israeli blood – and not always Jewish at that – and today was no exception.

An Israeli soldier was wounded by Hamas artillery fire in a firefight launched by the terrorists in the northern Gaza town of Beit Hanoun this morning, during the so-called ‘cease fire.’ The soldier is now listed in fair condition at Sheba Hospital in Tel HaShomer Medical Center in Tel Aviv.