Hamas reveals first image of Shalit in captivity
A year after 'Black Friday', Hamas claims the IDF lied about the incident in which one soldier was captured and two killed, and mistakenly took body of Hamas fighter dressed in IDF uniform instead of Goldin's.
Arab-language network Al-Jazeera on Thursday night aired a report detailing the events of "Black Friday" in Rafah, including an interview with members of Hamas's military wing.
The report featured a never before seen image showing Gilad Shalit in captivity.
On August 1, 2014, during Operation Protective Edge, three IDF soldiers were killed and the body of one of them, Second Lieutenant Hadar Goldin, was taken by Hamas. Maj. Benaya Sarel and Staff Sergeant Liel Gidoni were the other two soldiers who died in the attack.
The most incendiary claim in the report was that a Hamas fighter dressed in an IDF uniform was killed during the firefight, and that two IDF soldiers were killed, not three, as the IDF declared. According to Hamas, the IDF evacuated one of the Hamas dead, thinking he was a dead Israeli soldier.
One of the Hamas fighters present at the scene, Abu Walid, stated the firefight between the sides started at 7:30 AM and lasted five minutes, which would mean it began before the humanitarian ceasefire on that day at 8:00 AM.
This contradicts Israeli accounts and evidence that the incident occurred at around 9:00 AM. Hamas alleged that this discrepancy is because the IDF only attacked after two hours when they realized they had not brought back an Israeli soldier, and that Goldin was missing.
Lt. Tal Meyerovitch, a reserves team commander in Givati's Special Forces Brigade said after the incident that he had spoken to Maj. Sarel on the phone after the cease fire had entered effect, which was followed by a call between Sarel and his mother at 08:15 AM.
The director of Rafah's Abu Youssef al-Najjar Hospital told al-Jazeera that Israeli intelligence officers called him three times that day. They told him during one call that they had information that a kidnapped soldier may be in the hospital, which the director denied. He further claimed the IDF threatened to bomb the hospital.
One of the hospital's ambulance drivers said there was a heavy presence of drones circling above the hospital at that time.
According to Hamas, the organization has not been able to establish contact with its fighters from that battle, and to this day.
Hamas further claimed that the Hamas fighters feared the IDF troops would enter the tunnel in which they where sheltering. He added that the tunnels were rigged to explode if an enemy force every entered, which they did not, claiming the IDF never entered the tunnel.
This conflicts with soldiers' testimonies that they had entered the tunnel and found Goldin's uniform, which was later instrumental in the ruling that he had died before Hamas captured him.
The report closed with an image showing Gilad Shalit in captivity.
After Goldin's capture, the IDF issued the Hannibal Directive, which allows commanders to take whatever action is necessary to prevent a situation where Israel is forced to negotiate with captors. IDF troops fired close to 2,000 missiles, bombs and shells that morning in Rafah in order to stop the kidnapping attempt.
