A senior Hamas member has warned Israel that captured soldier Gilad Shalit will not be released alive if Israel does not release 350 Palestinian prisoners. "Hamas refuses to free Gilad Shalit before the release of 350 Palestinian prisoners demanded by Hamas," Moussa Abu Marzouk, the deputy head of Hamas's political bureau, told Kuwaiti newspaper Al-Qabas. "He will remain with us and we will negotiate over his bones."
Palestinian fighters captured Shalit in June 2006 and negotiations over a prisoner swap for Palestinians in Israeli custody have so far failed.
On Saturday, Mushir al-Masri, a Hamas legislator, warned Shalit's parents that Israel was jeopardising their son's life by not agreeing to release the Palestinian prisoners. "We emphasise to the Shalit family that [Israeli Prime Minister Ehud] Olmert and the people around him are gambling with their son's case," al-Masri said in a statement posted on a pro-Hamas website. |