Palestinian militants from Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades today retracted an earlier claim that it had kidnapped an Israeli soldier in the West Bank.
The group, part of President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah faction, had told reporters in the Gaza Strip earlier today that it had been holding a 22-year-old soldier in the West Bank since yesterday.
A later statement from the group in Gaza said it had discovered after investigation that the claim was "untrue".
Al-Aqsa has made hoax claims to have kidnapped Israelis in the past. Militants from the Gaza Strip, not including al-Aqsa, captured an Israeli soldier in a cross-border attack last Sunday, prompting Israel's first offensive into the territory since it pulled out of it last summer.
Another faction, the Popular Resistance Committees, killed an 18-year-old Jewish settler in the West Bank this week after saying it had kidnapped him.