The IDF said that “the aim of the operation is to protect Israeli lives and crush Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip.” But the Obama Administration has called upon Israel to restrict its operation to destroying the tunnels. So don’t be surprised if some State Department official or other to calls upon Israel to withdraw now — after all, they’ve destroyed eight tunnels, isn’t that enough? “Paratroopers uncover 8 smuggling tunnels in Gaza,” by Yoav Zitun, Ynet News, July 18, 2014:
IDF soldiers from the Paratrooper Brigade uncovered 8 shafts leading to smuggling tunnels during Friday morning skirmishes in the Gaza Strip. The find aligns with the government declaration that the IDF’s main targets in their ground incursion would be tunnels in use by Hamas.
The troops apparently uncovered the tunnels in coordination with intelligence efforts and found a cache of weapons being stored there.
Overnight, an IDF soldier was killed and five other soldiers sustained light to moderate wounds in separate incidents. Palestinian officials say that at least 24 Gazans have been killed since the ground operation began, including three children.
The operation forms the next stage of the 10-day-old Operation Protective Edge, aimed at destroying rocket fire on Israeli communities and Hamas’ system of underground tunnels.
The fallen soldier was identified as Eitan Barak, 20, from Herzliya. The IDF says he killed at around 3am in the northern part of the Strip. The army is investigating the possibility he was killed by friendly fire.
Another two soldiers sustained moderate wounds after being hit by shrapnel, and another by gunfire by Gazan fighters. They were taken to the Soroka Medical Center in Be’er Sheva. A fifth soldier sustained moderate injuries as a result of an accident, he was also taken to the hospital but released shortly afterwards.
Gaza health officials say 27 Palestinians have been killed since the ground operation began late Thursday. According to reports from noon Friday, three children were killed in northern Gaza, and another three men near Rafah.
The IDF said it killed 17 terrorists in a number different exchanges of fire and arrested another 13 later Friday. It was not immediately clear if the militants or the children were among those reported killed by Gaza authorities.
“The ground offensive does not scare us and we pledge to drown the occupation army in Gaza mud,” Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said in a statement.
A senior IDF source told Ynet that “there were altercations overnight but we are progressing as planned. As of now, some 14 terrorists have been killed in targeted attacks on rocket launching cells.”
According to the IDF, since 8 pm Thursday until 6 am Friday morning, over 150 targets were hit, including some 21 rocket launchers and 50 terror targets….