Israel Thinks Troops Lost Are Still Alive: Gazans

Israel appears to believe that two troops who went missing during its 51-day military onslaught on the Gaza Strip this summer are still alive, some Palestinians said Monday.



Israeli authorities who recently interrogated Palestinian medical patients as they left the blockaded Gaza Strip via the Erez border crossing had requested information about the two soldiers' fate, according to the Palestinians who had been subject to questioning.



They noted that Israeli authorities frequently questioned residents of Rafah and Gaza City.



They said Israeli authorities had wanted to know the location in Gaza of the two missing troops.



This line of questioning appeared to suggest that the Israelis believed the two soldiers were still alive, the Palestinians said on condition of anonymity.  



The Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Palestinian faction Hamas, said that, during Israel's recent Gaza offensive, it had managed to capture one Israeli soldier during an Israeli ground incursion.



Two days later, the Israeli army confirmed that the soldier was missing, but added that he had most likely been killed.



Israel has also accused Hamas of holding the remains of an Israeli army officer killed in fighting in eastern Rafah.



One Palestinian medical patient said he had been detained for more than half hour by Israeli authorities at the Erez crossing, where he had been questioned about the two missing troops.



"The Israeli army is trying to obtain information from Palestinian medical patients [seeking treatment outside the Gaza Strip] and their families about the missing troops," he told The Anadolu Agency.



Medical patients from the Gaza Strip frequently seek medical treatment at Israeli hospitals or Palestinian hospitals in the occupied West Bank.



A seven-year-long Israeli blockade of the Gaza Strip has deprived the strip's hospitals of essential medical supplies. Israel's recent offensive, which ended on August 24, only worsened conditions at Gaza's hospitals.



Another Gazan medical patient, who gave his name as Hassan, said an Israeli officer had asked him about what ordinary Gazans were saying about the missing troops and whether they were dead or alive.



The Al-Mezan Center for Human Rights, a Palestinian NGO, had earlier accused Israeli authorities of "blackmailing" Palestinian medical patients for information.  



Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon said previously that his country was committed to bringing the remains of its missing troops back home.



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