Israeli official denies Hamas claim of IDF strike on facility where soldier’s body held

An anonymous Israeli official almost immediately denies Hamas’s claim that a member of the terror group was killed in an airstrike on a facility used to hold the body of a fallen Israeli soldier.

The official tells reporters it is a lie meant to drum up interest amid a renewed push by Hamas to negotiate the release of the remains of two fallen Israeli soldiers — both killed eight years ago in the 2014 Gaza war — and two living Israeli citizens.

“This is one big lie. Hamas is under great pressure so it’s looking to raise the issue. Israel will continue with its many and myriad efforts to release the captives and the missing, and it will not stop,” the unnamed official says in a statement.

Hamas maintains that Lt. Hadar Goldin and Staff Sgt. Oron Shaul are alive. Israel denies this, and the official calls the terror group’s claims “lame.”