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Israel rejects Shalit exchange
01/07/2006 20:24 - (SA)
Gaza - Israel has rejected demands from Palestinian militants to free 1 000 prisoners in exchange for the release of a captured Israeli soldier.
A Palestinian official said mediators had reported the soldier was alive and stable after being treated for wounds.
But talks aimed at securing corporal Gilad Shalit's release appeared deadlocked, said Palestinian officials, raising the prospect that Israeli leaders might give the green light for a threatened military incursion into northern Gaza.
Israeli troops and gunmen from the governing Hamas movement clashed inside southern Gaza in one of the worst exchanges of fire since the assault to free Shalit began. There were no immediate reports of casualties.
"Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has reiterated there will be no deals, either Shalit will be released or we will act to bring about his release," said Israeli foreign ministry spokesperson Mark Regev.
Shalit's seizure in a raid across Gaza's frontier last Sunday sparked a crisis that has pushed Israeli-Palestinian ties to new lows and dashed any chance that peace talks might be revived.
Government had no prior knowledge of raid
United States President George W Bush said on Saturday that freeing Shalit was key to ending the crisis in Gaza.
A statement from the Palestinian militants did not specify that the freeing the 1 000 "Palestinian, Arab and Muslim prisoners" and the ending of Israel's Gaza assault would be in exchange for Shalit's freedom.
But a spokesperson for the Hamas armed wing, one of the three groups that captured Shalit, said that was what it meant.
The Palestinian government, already straining under a US-led economic embargo, has said it had no prior knowledge of the militants' raid.
Militants have not said whether Shalit is dead or alive, but a Palestinian official said mediators had said he was fine.
b>Militants reject proposal
"He is in a stable condition according to mediators," said Ziad Abu Ein, a senior Fatah official.
The United Nations said its Middle East special envoy, Alvero de Soto, would talk with President Mahmoud Abbas in Gaza on Sunday.
Israeli tanks entered the southern Gaza Strip this week in the biggest push into the territory since Israel pulled out troops and settlers last year.
Aircraft fired missiles at training camps and access routes used by gunmen to fire rockets at Israel on Saturday.
Diplomats had said Israel wanted to give the Egyptian-led mediation efforts more of a chance before broadening its operations, expected with a push into northern Gaza.
But talks were foundering on Saturday, partly because the militants were insisting on prisoners being freed in return for the 19-year-old tank gunner, said diplomats and Palestinian officials.
One Hamas leader said the militants had rejected an Egyptian proposal that Israel free a group of prisoners because it gave no number or timeframe.
- Reuters
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