CAIRO (Reuters) – The armed wing of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine said on Saturday that an Israeli soldier being held captive by the group in Gaza had been killed in an Israeli air strike that had also wounded some of his captors.
In an audio speech broadcast by Al Araby television, a spokesperson for the Abu Ali Mustafa Brigades group said the air strike took place following a failed attempt by Israeli commandos to free the soldier.
The spokesperson gave no details of when the soldier had been taken captive, or where he was being held in Gaza. He said the group is still holding the body of the slain soldier.
The Israeli military spokesperson’s office declined to comment.
The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine is the second biggest faction of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) after Fatah.
(Reporting by Nidal Al-Mughrabi, Hatem Maher and Dan Williams; Editing by Jan Harvey and Christina Fincher)
