Hamas said on Saturday that the missing soldier had likely been killed during fighting in southern Gaza, refuting Israeli claims that 23-year-old Second Lieutenant Hadar Goldin was being held by Palestinian militants.

"The Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades has no information on this soldier," the armed wing of Hamas said in a news release."We have lost contact with one of our combatant groups, which was fighting in the sector where the soldier went missing and it is possible that our fighters and this soldier were killed."

The Israeli military said that Palestinian militants attacked a group of its soldiers in southern Gaza on Friday. Two Israeli troops were reportedly killed in the ambush while Goldin was allegedly captured.

"Out of a tunnel access point or several [tunnel access points], terrorists came out of the ground," Israeli Lieutenant-Colonel Peter Lerner said. "At least one was a suicide bomber who detonated himself. There was an exchange of fire."

"The initial indication suggests that a soldier has been abducted by terrorists during the incident," Lerner continued.

Scores dead after ceasefire collapse

Israel claims that Hamas launched the attack 90 minutes after a ceasefire had gone into effect at 8:00 am local time. But Hamas spokesman Moussa Abu Marzouq said the fighting took place an hour before the ceasefire was supposed to begin.

More than 100 Palestinians have been killed since the ceasefire collapsed early on Friday. At least 1,600 Palestinians, most of them civilians, have died and another 8,000 have been wounded in total since Israel's military offensive began more than three weeks ago. Israel has lost 63 soldiers and three civilians.

Israeli forces have pushed deep into Gaza in search of Goldin, focusing their operation on the outskirts of Rafah, which lies on the Egyptian border. Residents of Rafah have reported heavy tank and artillery shelling.

In the past, Israel has gone to great lengths to find captured soldiers. In 2006, the Jewish state fought a 34-day war with Hezbollah in Lebanon, after the Iranian-backed Shiite militant group abducted two Israel soldiers.

In 2011, Israel released more than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners in exchange for captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, who had been abducted by Hamas five years earlier.

slk/av (AP, AFP, dpa, Reuters)