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Captors 'won't kill soldier'
04/07/2006 10:38 - (SA)
Gaza City - The captors of an Israeli soldier abducted last week do not want to kill the serviceman, despite the expiry of an ultimatum to Israel, one of three groups holding him told AFP on Tuesday.
But Abu Muthanna, a spokesperson for the Army of Islam, warned: "We gave an ultimatum and it has expired, all the efforts have failed. The enemy now bears the responsibility for the consequences of its position on the fate of the soldier."
Muthanna said that despite fears the groups which carried out the abduction of the soldier would kill him, "our Islamic values tell us that prisoners should be respected and not killed".
Ultimatum rejected
Together with the armed wing of the governing Hamas movement and the Popular Resistance Committees, the group captured 19-year-old Gilad Shalit during an attack on an Israeli army post on the southern Gaza border on June 25.
On Monday, they set a 03:00 GMT Tuesday deadline for Israel to accept its demands, having previously asked for the release of 1 000 Palestinian, Arab and Muslim prisoners, as well as of Palestinian women and juniors held in Israel.
But Israel rejected the ultimatum and pressed on with its military offensive against the Gaza Strip, waging a seventh straight night of air raids.
'Enemy will be responsible for all results'
The two other groups responsible for the soldier's abduction, including the armed wing of the governing Hamas, did not immediately wish to comment but Abu Muthanna said a statement from the captors would be published later on Tuesday.
"If the enemy does not meet the demands we laid out in our previous statement... we will consider the matter closed and the enemy will be responsible for all results," the soldier's captors said on Monday.
The captors never explicitly said they would execute their hostage, who is believed to have been wounded in the June 25 attack and held in southern Gaza.
"We will give no chance to negotiations or mediations until the Israeli respond favourably to our demands for the prisoners to be released," Abu Muthanna told AFP.
He suggested that the soldier's captors would not set a new ultimatum and said: "We have no option but to close the file," without elaborating.
'Sea of blood'
The armed wing of Hamas - the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades - has threatened to resume attacks inside Israel after an 18-month truce, warning of a "sea of blood" should Israel not halt its military offensive on the Gaza Strip.
Israel has been conducting dozens of air raids and staged several ground incursions into the Gaza Strip since the capture of the soldier.
It says the operations are aimed at rescuing the soldier and taking out militants but Palestinian leaders have accused the Jewish state of seeking to topple the government led by the Islamist Hamas movement.
Efforts led by moderate Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas and Egypt to secure the release of the soldier - who also holds French citizenship - have so far yielded no results, negotiators said.
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