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Deadline passes for captured Israeli soldier in Gaza | ASHARQ AL-AWSAT English Archive 2005 -2017
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Saudi King Abdullah meets with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in the Red Sea city of Jeddah, 03 July 2006 (AFP)


Saudi King Abdullah meets with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in the Red Sea city of Jeddah, 03 July 2006 (AFP)

Saudi King Abdullah meets with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in the Red Sea city of Jeddah, 03 July 2006 (AFP)

GAZA, (Reuters) – Israel warned the Palestinian’s governing Hamas group the “sky will fall on them” if they harm a captured soldier as a deadline passed on Tuesday for Israel to accept a prisoner exchange.

Three Palestinian factions, among them the Hamas armed wing, pulled out of negotiations with Egyptian mediators seeking Corporal Gilad Shalit’s release, a Hamas political leader said.

Israel rejected a 6 a.m. (0300 GMT) ultimatum set by the factions, which demanded that the Jewish state free 1,000 prisoners. Unless the demands were met, the factions said, “the enemy will bear full responsibility for future consequences”.

Israel said it would not negotiate with the militants, and the Maariv newspaper reported that the government gave the army a green light to launch a deeper incursion into northern Gaza.

“Hamas well understands the uncompromising message of the Israeli government, that the sky will fall on them if they harm Gilad Shalit,” Interior Minister Roni Bar-On told Israel Radio.

“We will respond in a way the Palestinians haven’t yet seen if, heaven forbid, they carry out their threat.”

A U.S. official said Israel had a right to defend itself, but that Washington was telling Prime Minister Ehud Olmert: “Show restraint. Don’t harm civilians.”

Hamas accused Israel of launching the offensive to topple its three-month-old government, which the Jewish state and Western powers have pushed to the brink of financial collapse by cutting off aid.

The smallest of the three militant groups, the previously unknown Islamic Army, said there would be no further information released on 19-year-old Shalit, who was seized in a cross-border raid on June 25. They sent conflicting signals about his fate.

“Whether he will be killed or not killed, we will not disclose any information… Discussion is closed,” said Islamic Army spokesman Abu al-Muthana.

But he later said: “We do not kill captives. Our Islam requires that we treat captives well and fairly.” He declined to say whether Shalit was alive or dead.

Osama al-Muzaini, a Hamas political leader, said the ilitant groups have withdrawn their representatives from the talks with the Egyptian mediators.

He compared the fate of Shalit to that of Israeli airman Ron Arad, who has been missing since bailing out of his plane over southern Lebanon 20 years ago. There has been growing speculation Arad is dead.

“They (the militant factions) may kill him (Shalit), take him to another country or may hide him. All options are open,” al-Muzaini said.

Rejecting any deal, Israel has launched its first offensive in Gaza since withdrawing last year and massed troops and armour for a possible expansion of the ground operation.

Palestinian security sources said Israel had increased the number of armoured vehicles on the northern edge of the strip.

A small Israeli force moved deeper into northern Gaza in search of explosives and tunnels but the army said it was not part of a broader incursion. Overnight, an Israeli air strike in northern Gaza killed one militant.

Israel has hinted it could assassinate leaders of Hamas, whose government is under an international aid embargo, if Shalit is not freed.

Hamas, which advocates Israel’s destruction, does not want to lose face by freeing Shalit without getting something in return. Israel

says it does not want to set a precedent that could lead to more abductions.

Hamas sources said Western diplomats, whom they did not name, had told the group that Israel had prepared a 13-man hit list headed by exiled leader Khaled Meshaal and including Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh and Foreign Minister Mahmoud al-Zahar.

Israel sent troops into the southern Gaza Strip last Wednesday. Tanks pushed just inside the north on Monday in a possible prelude to a deeper incursion into the area, often used by militants firing rockets into Israel.

Israeli security sources said a commando raid to try to rescue Shalit remained an option but would be risky in Gaza’s maze of alleyways. The last Israeli soldier abducted by Palestinians was killed in a failed rescue bid in 1994.

A Palestinian woman holds a portrait of her son, held prisoner in an Israeli jail, during a demonstration to demand the release of prisoners outside the Egyptian embassy in Gaza City, July 3 2006 (AP)

A Palestinian woman holds a portrait of her son, held prisoner in an Israeli jail, during a demonstration to demand the release of prisoners outside the Egyptian embassy in Gaza City, July 3 2006 (AP)

Israeli soldiers rest in the shade of the wall separating the northern Gaza Strip from Israel near the Israeli village of Netiv Ha'asara, July 3, 2006 (AP)

Israeli soldiers rest in the shade of the wall separating the northern Gaza Strip from Israel near the Israeli village of Netiv Ha’asara, July 3, 2006 (AP)