Hamas threatens to capture more Israelis
Sat, 21 Mar 2009 00:59:14 GMT
Hamas' political chief Khalid Mashaal
Hamas warns it may capture more Israeli soldiers as a last option after a Tel Aviv committee urged pressure on Israeli-held Palestinian inmates.
On Friday, the Palestinian resistance movement said Tel Aviv's non-contribution to a prisoner exchange between the two sides may leave the group no choice but to seize more Israeli troopers.
"When they refuse to release Palestinians, it forces the Palestinians to resort to other means to gain their release - and inevitably this includes the capture of more Israeli soldiers," said Hamas' political leader Khalid Mashaal in an interview with the Australian daily The Sydney Morning Herald.
The comments came after an Israeli committee, tasked with examining the conditions of confinement of nearly 11,500 Palestinian prisoners, urged the government to build up pressure on the inmates to force the release of Gilad Shalit -- the Israeli soldier captured in 2006 by Gazan fighters.
The two sides have so far failed to agree on a swap deal which would see Shalit's release in exchange for the freedom of 1,450 Palestinian prisoners.
Following Shalit's capture, Israel acted to almost block the flow of direly-needed supplies into the Gaza Strip before placing the coastal area under a stifling blockade in 2007. Tel Aviv claimed its actions were a response to alleged rocket attacks by Hamas on southern Israel.
In July 2007, Israel agreed to open the region's border-crossings in exchange for progress in resolution of the prisoner ordeal and cessation of the rocket attacks. Tel Aviv, however, failed to live up to the promise.
"Israel was supposed to end the siege and open the border crossings in return for a halt to the rockets; the rockets stopped, but the siege remained and the crossings stayed closed," Mashaal added.
"It's unfair to ask Palestinians if they want to die slowly under siege or quickly under fire," concluded the Hamas leader who himself survived an assassination attempt by the Israeli intelligence agency Mossad in 1997.
HN/SME/MMN
Sat, 21 Mar 2009 00:59:14 GMT
Hamas' political chief Khalid Mashaal
Hamas warns it may capture more Israeli soldiers as a last option after a Tel Aviv committee urged pressure on Israeli-held Palestinian inmates.
On Friday, the Palestinian resistance movement said Tel Aviv's non-contribution to a prisoner exchange between the two sides may leave the group no choice but to seize more Israeli troopers.
"When they refuse to release Palestinians, it forces the Palestinians to resort to other means to gain their release - and inevitably this includes the capture of more Israeli soldiers," said Hamas' political leader Khalid Mashaal in an interview with the Australian daily The Sydney Morning Herald.
The comments came after an Israeli committee, tasked with examining the conditions of confinement of nearly 11,500 Palestinian prisoners, urged the government to build up pressure on the inmates to force the release of Gilad Shalit -- the Israeli soldier captured in 2006 by Gazan fighters.
The two sides have so far failed to agree on a swap deal which would see Shalit's release in exchange for the freedom of 1,450 Palestinian prisoners.
Following Shalit's capture, Israel acted to almost block the flow of direly-needed supplies into the Gaza Strip before placing the coastal area under a stifling blockade in 2007. Tel Aviv claimed its actions were a response to alleged rocket attacks by Hamas on southern Israel.
In July 2007, Israel agreed to open the region's border-crossings in exchange for progress in resolution of the prisoner ordeal and cessation of the rocket attacks. Tel Aviv, however, failed to live up to the promise.
"Israel was supposed to end the siege and open the border crossings in return for a halt to the rockets; the rockets stopped, but the siege remained and the crossings stayed closed," Mashaal added.
"It's unfair to ask Palestinians if they want to die slowly under siege or quickly under fire," concluded the Hamas leader who himself survived an assassination attempt by the Israeli intelligence agency Mossad in 1997.
HN/SME/MMN
Hebrew paper: Israel should bow to Hamas's conditions on Shalit
[ 20/03/2009 - 05:22 PM ]
OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (PIC)-- The Hebrew Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper has asserted Thursday that all events indicate that Hamas Movement emerged victorious in the latest war in Gaza Strip, and that the Israeli occupation authority should bow to the Movement's conditions for swapping prisoners.
In an article it published Thursday, the popular paper highlighted the necessity to release Palestinian captives in Israeli jails based on the list submitted by Hamas, adding that the harm inflicted and could be inflicted on the Hebrew state as a result of the failure of the swap deal would be greater than Hamas's losses.
The paper, in this regard, urged the IOA to acknowledge the defeat in Gaza, and to stop deceiving the Israeli occupation army soldiers, stressing, "Israel won't be able to free Gilad Shalit neither by pressuring Hamas nor by going to another military operation in Gaza Strip".
It added that Hamas Movement, the strongest in the Palestinian arena, would exert more efforts to capture more Israeli soldiers to swap them with Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails in the event the IOA continued to refuse Hamas's conditions.
"Defeated Israel should bow its head and surrendering Palestinian captives to Hamas Movement, and Israeli leaders and officials must stop playing the role of heroes at the expense of Shalit", the paper concluded.
Shalit was captured in June 2006 from his tank in a qualitative operation that was carried out by Palestinian resistance fighters from three Palestinian factions led by Hamas.
Since then, the IOA spared no effort in locating him using its intelligence networks, in addition to its agents in the Gaza Strip but to no avail.
when the Mossad decide to Kill , or Kidnapp no one knows about it , but it is done in secrecy . I wish Hamas did that and surprised the zionists . of course they will be careful now , they are asking their citizens not to travel to the red sea now .
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