Israel, Hamas vow no let up in Gaza fighting

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Both Israel and Hamas vowed Saturday (August 2) to continue their bloody 26-day confrontation in Gaza, shunning efforts to broker an end to violence which has claimed more than 1,700 lives.

With no end to the bloodshed in sight, a senior Palestinian delegation landed in Cairo for talks on an Egyptian ceasefire initiative, although Israel said it was not sending a negotiating team.

Earlier, Israel had pulled back troops from two areas in Gaza in what was initially interpreted as a sign it was winding down its biggest military operation in Gaza in decades, but there appeared to be little indication Israel was planning to wrap up its operations.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu promised that Hamas would pay "an insufferable price" for continued cross-border rocket fire.

A spokesman for the Islamist movement mocked Netanyahu's statements as "confused" and testimony of the "real crisis" he was facing. "We will continue our resistance till we achieve our goals," Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhum told AFP.

Chances of achieving a more permanent ceasefire nosedived on Friday after Israel said it believed Hamas militants had captured a 23-year-old soldier in a Friday morning ambush near the southern Gaza city of Rafah.

Immediately afterwards, Israel bombarded the Rafah area in shelling that is still ongoing, with medics saying it killed 114 people in 24 hours.

Hamas's armed wing, the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, acknowledged its militants had staged an ambush early Friday in which soldiers were killed, but denied holding the soldier, saying the attackers were missing and presumed dead.

"We have lost contact with the mujahedeen unit that was in that ambush, and we think that all the fighters in this unit were killed by Zionist shelling along with the missing soldier."

Second Lieutenant Hadar Goldin's family made their own emotional appeal on Saturday evening. "I demand that the state of Israel not leave Gaza without bringing my child back home to me," said his mother Hedva, her voice breaking.

Meanwhile, air strikes and tank fire continued pounding huge areas of southern Gaza into rubble, killing scores more people on Saturday.

Israel says missing soldier killed in action
The Israeli army has said that it has determined that Hadar Goldin, the 23-year-old soldier it said was captured by Hamas on Friday, was killed in action.

The army had previously said that Goldin went missing when its soldiers, two of whom were killed, were attacked while trying to destroy a Hamas tunnel in southern Gaza.