GAZA CITY: A second Israeli soldier has been kidnapped and will be killed unless Israel ends its military offensive in the Palestinian territories, the radical Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades declared overnight Friday. Israeli police denied claims on Saturday. The armed group, loosely affiliated to Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas's Fatah party, called for "the end of the Israeli offensive," "the lifting of the blockade" in the territories, and the "withdrawal (of Israeli troops) from the occupied zones in the West Bank and Gaza", in a statement received by AFP in Gaza City. "If our demands are not met, the Al-Aqsa Brigades will kill the kidnapped soldier," the statement said, without giving any details of the kidnapping. The soldier was seized in the West Bank, the group said. They named him as Hoffmann Kfeir Samuel, aged 24, a resident of Hulul, south of Tel Aviv. |