Israel 'won't pay ransom'

2006-07-17 12:30

Rome - The Israeli government will not pay a ransom for the soldier who was kidnapped last month, vice prime minister Shimon Peres told Wednesday's edition of the Italian daily La Repubblica.

"We will offer no gift. If we paid a ransom for him, that would be a kind of encouragement to kidnap other hostages and a guarantee that we will go on to carry out a prisoner exchange each time. That's how you encourage mindless terrorism," he said.

The Palestinian governing movement Hamas, which has been holding Israeli corporal Gilad Shalit hostage since capturing him on the Gaza border on June 25, has demanded the release of Palestinian prisoners in exchange for his freedom.

Soldiers captured by Hezbollah

Peres was speaking to La Repubblica before another two Israeli soldiers were captured on Wednesday by the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah in an operation along Israel's northern border.

Israel swiftly sent ground troops into southern Lebanon, backed by aircraft and artillery, in the first ground operation into the country since a 2000 pullout, as Hezbollah targets were pounded.

The offensive sent the latest Middle East crisis - already the worst in months - soaring and threatened to drag the wider region into its fallout.

Israel moves deeper into Gaza Strip

Israel has flatly refused to negotiate with Hamas, whose armed wing claimed joint responsibility for the capture of 19-year-old Shalit along with two other militant Palestinian groups.

Ground troops also thrust deeper into the Gaza Strip on Wednesday in a bid to retrieve Shalit as aircraft struck a house killing nine Palestinians from the same family and reportedly wounded Hamas's supreme military commander.

The government of Ehud Olmert has so far rejected the prisoner exchange proposed by Khaled Mechaal, the head of the Hamas political bureau, while Israel has often negotiated for the release of hostages.

'Why should we carry out an exchange?'

"This time it's different. They didn't try to kidnap an Israeli soldier within Gaza, since we have completely pulled out of there. ... They penetrated sovereign Israeli territory and they captured an Israeli soldier. So why should we carry out an exchange or pay a ransom?" Peres asked.

He said: "No intervention by Hamas was necessary. They could have obtained prisoners without any exchange since Prime Minister Ehud Olmert was set to meet the head of the Palestinian Authority Abu Mazen, and he was thinking of freeing many more prisoners than these people imagined.

"The Hamas men who took power should decide: either they are a serious government or they are a terrorist government."

Truce

The Israeli government had agreed to a truce proposed by Hamas before Shalit's kidnapping, but Peres said: "It is Hamas who infringed it by continuing to fire missiles on Israeli civilians despite the withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, and by kidnapping this soldier in Israeli territory."

"We need a serious partner to bring an end to hostilities and negotiate seriously," he said.

- AFP