Hamas terrorists who are holding IDF Cpl Gilad Shalit hostage have rejected a deal to swap the Israeli soldier for hundreds of Palestinian Authority Arab prisoners.
Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abu Gheit said in an interview on Al Arabiya television that terrorists rejected a deal “to free women, children, elders and those who have been serving long prison terms” in exchange for Shalit.
The prisoner exchange “could have guaranteed freeing 900 to 1,000 prisoners,” said Abu Gheit, “but sadly they have decided to keep holding him.”
Egypt lost patience with Hamas last week and demanded in a harsh letter written by Egyptian intelligence chief Omar Suleiman to Damascus-based Hamas leader Khalid Meshaal that Shalit be released by October 22nd, the end of the Islamic month of Ramadan.
Suleiman also said Meshaal would be held responsible for any Israeli military operation carried out in Gaza. IDF Chief of General Staff Dan Halutz said before the Yom Kippur holiday on Sunday that Israel may ratchet up the pressure in Gaza in response to increased Kassam rocket attacks on Sderot and other southern Israeli communities.
A spokesman for the Popular Resistance Committees (PRC), the Hamas terror organization that kidnapped Shalit, said Monday that such an attack would mean the file of the soldier may get closed again.” The spokesman, Abu Mujahed, warned, "If they enter Gaza and kill people or even if they eliminate all Gazans, they will never regain their soldier."
Arutz Sheva
10.03.2006
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