PALESTINIAN group Hamas claims to have taken an Israeli soldierprisoner in an ambush yesterday on the Gaza Strip, AFP reports.

Israel denied this claim.

Abu Obeida, spokesman for the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, said  Hamas had targeted Israeli forces in a tunnel in the Jabalia camp and that it had had “all their members killed, wounded, or taken prisoner”.

Hamas also broadcast images of a soldier being dragged along the ground, which it said was a captured Israeli.

In a statement on Telegram, the Israeli army said: “There is no incident in which a soldier was abducted.”

Israeli warplanes and artillery pounded Rafah yesterday as the state dismissed an order by the top UN court to halt its military offensive in the southern Gaza city. – May 26, 2024.