Gaza City (CNN) -- The bloodshed in Gaza showed no sign of letting up Saturday, with 50 Palestinians reported killed amid renewed Israeli shelling following accusations that Palestinian militants captured an Israeli soldier.
The fate of the soldier, identified by the Israel Defense Forces as 2nd Lt. Hadar Goldin, remains unclear.
And each side blames the other for the collapse of an attempted cease-fire in Friday, which disintegrated before it ever really took hold.
Who violated the cease-fire agreement? Obama condemns cease-fire violation Israel-Hamas cease-fire collapsesPointing the finger at Hamas and its militant allies for the attack, in which Goldin went missing and two other soldiers were killed, Israel resumed shelling on what it has described as militant strongholds in Gaza.
As of Saturday, the overall Palestinian death toll has risen to 1,650, with more than 8,900 wounded, said Dr. Ashraf el-Qedra, spokesman for the Palestinian Health Ministry in Gaza, on his Facebook page.
The IDF said Saturday morning that it had hit 200 'terror targets' in Gaza in the past 24 hours, including 'tunnels, weapon manufacturing and storage facilities, and command and control centers.'
A huge pre-dawn blast rocked Gaza as the Islamic University was apparently hit by Israeli shelling. According to the IDF, it was targeting 'a Hamas military wing facility that was used for research and development of weapon manufacturing' within the university.
Shelling also targeted weapons caches and Hamas facilities within five mosques, it said.
In addition, Israeli aircraft targeted a missile launcher used to fire at Tel Aviv, the IDF said. Two rockets were intercepted over that city and another over Beersheba early Saturday. In the past 24 hours, 65 rockets have been fired into Israel, the IDF said, 11 of which were intercepted.
The missing soldierBy late Friday, there was no claim of responsibility for the capture of the missing soldier.
But speculation about his fate took a turn after the armed wing of Hamas, the al Qassam Brigades, announced it had lost contact with a group of its fighters in the Rafah area -- the same area where Goldin was reportedly taken.
Life in Gaza after cease-fire collapse Fiery debate over Israel, Hamas commentsIn a statement posted on its website, the militant group says it assumes that all of the fighters were killed in an Israeli airstrike, including possibly a soldier that Israel claims was captured. The statement stopped short of definitively saying the soldier was captured, using the phrasing 'assuming he was captured by the fighters.'
Hamas spokesman Osama Hamdan denied it happened.
'It's clear that the capture of the soldier is an Israeli story; there's nothing from the resistance saying there was a capture,' he told CNN.
According to the al Qassam Brigades, they carried out an attack on Israeli troops before the cease-fire took effect. In a statement, the group mentioned that Israeli soldiers were killed, but did not mention the capture of a soldier.
Short-lived ceasefireThe announced 72-hour humanitarian cease-fire between Israel and Hamas didn't even last two hours Friday, by some accounts.
The pause appears to have eroded after about 90 minutes in Rafah, a city in southern Gaza, with the attack on Israeli soldiers. The soldiers were working to destroy a tunnel built by militants to breach Israel's border, when a militant emerged from it and detonated a suicide bomb, Israeli military Lt. Col. Peter Lerner told CNN's Wolf Blitzer.
Before the cease-fire plan was announced, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had said Israeli troops would continue destroying Hamas' network of tunnels that run under the border into Israel with or without a truce.
Peres: 'What can we do?' 16-year-old describes life in Gaza Hamas explainedHamdan, the Hamas spokesman, said that this part of the truce was not communicated to his group -- that Hamas' understanding was that there would be no military activity at all.
A U.N. spokesman said it was very clear the Israelis would continue destroying the tunnels.
'Perhaps some will deny that now,' said Jeffery Feltman, undersecretary-general for public affairs. 'But, yes, it was very clear in the diplomacy being done yesterday. ... The Israelis never ceased saying that.'
Around the time of the suicide bombing, Palestinian sources told CNN they could hear shelling in the area. The Gaza Health Ministry said an Israeli attack on Rafah killed at least 62 people and wounded 350.
A Hamas spokesman said Israel broke the cease-fire before and after the hiatus by advancing its forces near civilian areas in Rafah and by occupying civilian homes to use as sniper positions.
The Israel Defense Forces told a different version, saying its troops in Rafah were attacked in a 'brutal incident' that required them to defend themselves. At the same time, rockets were fired from Gaza into southern Israel, Mark Regev, spokesman for Israel's Prime Minister, told CNN.
What is Hamas' endgame in Gaza?What is Israel's endgame in Gaza?Future cease-fire?U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry called the attack on the Israeli soldiers 'an outrageous violation of the cease-fire.'
It was a sentiment echoed by U.S. President Barack Obama, who told reporters in Washington that he was holding Hamas responsible.
'If they are serious about a cease-fire, that soldier needs to be unconditionally released,' Obama said. He went on to say that when Hamas signs on to a cease-fire, the group is saying it's in control of the Palestinian factions.
While Obama said Israel has the right to protect itself, he called the growing number of civilians killed in Gaza 'heartbreaking' and said more must be done to protect them.
With the conflict in its fourth week, the United Nations has estimated between 70% and 80% of the Palestinian casualties are civilians.
Since Israel began Operation Protective Edge against Hamas on July 8, three civilians have been killed in Israel. Sixty-one Israeli soldiers have been killed during the hostilities, the IDF has said.
In an overwhelming bipartisan vote, 395-8, the House on Friday gave final congressional approval for another $225 million to support Israel's Iron Dome missile defense system. The Senate passed the measure earlier Friday.
Inside a Hamas tunnel1 killed in West Bank protestThe conflict has caused outrage around the world, including in the Palestinian West Bank, where thousands protested on Friday. One Palestinian was killed in Tulkarem during clashes with the Israeli military, Palestinian paramedics told CNN.
The Arab world has been accused of being silent on the Gaza conflict, but Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah on Friday released a statement condemning the violence.
Hamas has said it wants an end to Israel's blockade on Gaza, which restricts the movement of goods and people. It also wants the release of prisoners detained by the Israelis.
Israel, meanwhile, has said it is aiming for the demilitarization of Hamas-controlled Gaza, removing the threat that militant weapons pose to Israeli civilians.
Opinion: Gaza peace struggle drains me of hopeWhat You Need to Know About the Israel-Hamas Blame GameCNN's Mariano Castillo and Laura Smith-Spark reported and wrote the story in Atlanta and London. CNN's Karl Penhaul, John Vause and Salma Abdelaziz contributed from Gaza City, and Tal Heinrich from Jerusalem.
Entities 0 Name: Israel Count: 17 1 Name: Hamas Count: 17 2 Name: Gaza Count: 15 3 Name: Israeli Count: 13 4 Name: CNN Count: 7 5 Name: IDF Count: 5 6 Name: Rafah Count: 5 7 Name: Palestinian Count: 3 8 Name: Obama Count: 3 9 Name: Gaza City Count: 2 10 Name: Israel Defense Forces Count: 2 11 Name: Goldin Count: 2 12 Name: U.S. Count: 2 13 Name: Abdullah Count: 1 14 Name: Jeffery Feltman Count: 1 15 Name: Laura Smith-Spark Count: 1 16 Name: Karl Penhaul Count: 1 17 Name: United Nations Count: 1 18 Name: Hamdan Count: 1 19 Name: Gaza Hamas Count: 1 20 Name: Osama Hamdan Count: 1 21 Name: Mariano Castillo Count: 1 22 Name: Benjamin Netanyahu Count: 1 23 Name: Tal Heinrich Count: 1 24 Name: Peter Lerner Count: 1 25 Name: Salma Abdelaziz Count: 1 26 Name: Atlanta Count: 1 27 Name: Saudi Arabia Count: 1 28 Name: Barack Obama Count: 1 29 Name: Tel Aviv Count: 1 30 Name: Gaza Health Ministry Count: 1 31 Name: Palestinian West Bank Count: 1 32 Name: U.N. Count: 1 33 Name: John Kerry Count: 1 34 Name: Mark Regev Count: 1 35 Name: West Bank Count: 1 36 Name: John Vause Count: 1 37 Name: Senate Count: 1 38 Name: House Count: 1 39 Name: Wolf Blitzer Count: 1 40 Name: Washington Count: 1 41 Name: Islamic University Count: 1 42 Name: Tulkarem Count: 1 43 Name: Beersheba Count: 1 44 Name: Dr. Ashraf el-Qedra Count: 1 45 Name: London Count: 1 46 Name: Hadar Goldin Count: 1 47 Name: Palestinian Health Ministry Count: 1 48 Name: Jerusalem Count: 1 Related 0 Url: http://ift.tt/1qxkATQ Title: Israeli soldier feared captured as Gaza truce fails Description: GAZA CITY - Israel's military said Friday that it fears one of its soldiers was captured by Hamas gunmen soon after a 72-hour truce collapsed in renewed fighting, just hours after it began. Both sides, which resumed fierce fighting, accused the other of breaching the planned cease-fire.