The IDF has begun to partially withdraw troops from parts of the Gaza Strip. Having completed their specific missions, the forces are coming out of completed areas. The IDF is still continuing to complete its mission to destroy the terror tunnels. The IDF estimates it will complete the mission within the next day.

Over the past 24 hours, the IDF struck 153 terror targets in the Gaza Strip, including tunnels, weapon manufacturing and storage facilities, and command and control centers. Among the targets was a Hamas military wing facility that was used for research and development of weapon manufacturing located within the Islamic University.

Hamas was reportedly researching chemical weapons options.

In addition, weapon caches and Hamas command and training facilities concealed within five mosques were targeted.

PM Netanyahu said last night at a press conference that the IDF will continue its military campaign against Hamas in the Gaza Strip for as long as needed and with as much force as necessary. “From the beginning, we promised to return the quiet to Israel’s citizens and we will continue to act until that aim is achieved. We will take as much time as necessary, and will exert as much force as needed,” Netanyahu said. He further stressed that the IDF’s redeployment did not indicate an end to Operation Protective Edge and that the IDF would continue to operate “only on the basis of security considerations.” “I can’t tell you how it’s going to develop,” he said. “We are keeping all options for action open.” Last night a special committee led by the IDF Chief Rabbi announced the death of Lt. Hadar Goldin, 23, an infantry officer in the Givati Brigade who was killed in battle in the Gaza Strip on Friday. Medical, religious and other relevant factors were considered before making the official announcement. Lt. Goldin’s family was notified by Head of the IDF Personnel Directorate Maj. Gen. Orna Barbivai and Chief Military Rabbi Brig. Gen. Rafi Peretz. Minister of Defense Ya’alon visited the family as well. “Prior to the decision, all medical considerations, religious observances, as well as additional relevant issues were taken into consideration,” the IDF statement reads. As Goldin’s group was attacked, two other soldiers, Benaya Sarel and Liel Gidoni, were killed.

At the announcement, many of the hundreds rallying outside the Goldin home in a show of support for the family burst into tears on hearing the news.

Over the past 24 hours 86 rockets were fired at Israel, 58 rockets hit Israel and 6 were intercepted by the Iron Dome system.

Hamas has fired 3,127 rockets towards Israel since the beginning of Operation ‘Protective Edge’.

The funeral for fallen IDF officer, Lt. Hadar Goldin will be in the Kfar Sava Military cemetery at 5:30pm, Sunday.

The family has requested that the Nation of Israel come to the funeral to honor Hadar.

May his memory be a blessing and may his death be avenged by G-d and the IDF.

Click for Google Map directions to the cemetery.

2:37am Ten thousand Israelis are accompanying the funeral procession for Major Benaya Sarel who was killed in combat on Friday in Gaza (Rafiach).

Major Sarel was the commander of the elite Sayeret Givati unit.

The procession started from his home in Kiryat Arba and is going to Ma’arat HaMachpela (Tomb of the Patriarchs and Matriarchs of the Jewish people) in Hevron, ending at the old Jewish cemetery in Hevron.

Mahjor Sarel was supposed to get married on August 21st.

May his memory be a blessing.

Updated: An IDF soldier was kidnapped this morning in Rafah (Rafiach) at 9:30am.

Hamas terrorists attacked IDF troops this morning during the cease fire, a fierce battle ensued, at it is believed they managed to kidnap a soldier. CNN reports that a suicide bomber was used.

They have made numerous attempts, since the war began, to abduct soldiers, and this may have been their goal all along.

The soldier’s family has been notified.

3:00pm The soldier has been identified as:

Hadar ben Hedva Leah

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

At 8:00am Friday, a humanitarian cease fire between Israel and Hamas went into effect.

IMRA’s Dr. Aaron Lerner has posed a question to both the Israeli Prime Minister’s office and the IDF.

“During the course of the humanitarian ceasefire can the IDF detonate explosives to demolish tunnels?”

The IDF referred him to the Prime Minister’s office. The Prime Minister’s office referred him to a statement by the IDF.

Prime Minister’s Office declines to answer regarding destruction of tunnels during ceasefire Dr. Aaron Lerner – IMRA 1 August 2014

At 08:50 Dr. Aaron Lerner of IMRA reached David Baker David Baker, the Senior Foreign Press Coordinator in the Office of the Prime Minister, on the telephone and asked: “during the course of the humanitarian ceasefire can the IDF detonate explosives to demolish tunnels.”

David Baker replied: Ask the IDF Spokesperson’s Office.

IMRA told Baker: The IDF Spokesperson’s Office says to ask the Prime Minister’s Office.

Baker replied: We have nothing to add to the reply of the IDF Spokesperson’s Office.

IDF Spokespersons Office: Questions relating to ceasefire to be answered by Prime Minister’s Office Dr. Aaron Lerner Date: 1 August 2014

IMRA contacted the IDF Spokesman’s Office News Desk at 08:03 this morning and asked: “during the course of the humanitarian ceasefire can the IDF detonate explosives to demolish tunnels.”

The IDF Spokesman’s Office News Desk replied that “all questions relating to the ceasefire are to be answered by the Prime Minister’s Office.”

IMRA has contacted the Prime Minister’s Office but has not yet received a reply.

In a conversation with IMRA when the ceasefire was announced Saskia Ramming, Spokesperson, Office of the United Nations Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, decline to take a position as to whether Israeli forces could detonate explosives in order to destroy tunnels during the ceasefire.

News reports on Israel Radio regarding the terms of the ceasefire say that “the IDF will continue to DEAL WITH the tunnels during the ceasefire” but it should be noted that the term “DEAL WITH” includes filling up tunnel shafts with dirt.

Israel Radio Arab Affairs Correspondent Gal Berger reported this morning on Israel Radio Reshet Bet after 08:00 that it is the position of Hamas that Israeli action destroying tunnels would be considered a violation of the ceasefire.

During the course of the previous humanitarian ceasefire the IDF Spokesperson told IMRA twice that tunnels could not be exploded during the ceasefire but the next day the answer became more complicated, with the reference to the use of explosive material during the ceasefire being an airborne strike against a tunnel entrance in defense of IDF ground forces under attack from terrorists firing from a tunnel opening.

Take note: when the count of destroyed tunnels was renewed after the end of the ceasefire – a figure not provided during the ceasefire – it turned out that there was the exact same number of “destroyed tunnels” after the ceasefire as before the ceasefire.

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?