Egyptian delegation meets with captured corporal
GAZA CITY: Palestinian militants holding an Israeli soldier captive issued an ultimatum Monday for Israel to free prisoners or face the consequences as the army kept up its military assault on the Gaza Strip. The 03:00 GMT Tuesday deadline was immediately rejected by Israel and Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, which sent troops and tanks into northern Gaza after a sixth straight night of air attacks launched in a bid to pressure the Palestinians into giving up the serviceman. Faced with the Zionist enemy s persistence in taking military measures and aggressions, we give it a delay expiring Tuesday, July 4 at 6:00 a.m. (03:00 GMT), said a statement from three groups that seized the teenage conscript in an attack on an army post eight days ago. 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, said the statement from the Popular Resistance Committees, the armed wing of the ruling Hamas movement and the Army of Islam. The government of Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, which has massed a force of 5,000 troops on the Gaza border, has so far rejected demands by militants for the release of Palestinian prisoners in its jails. We are studying the statement and for the moment are sticking to the official position expressed by the prime minister rejecting any negotiations with the kidnappers or giving into any blackmail, a military official said. In northern Gaza, a Palestinian militant from the armed wing of Hamas was shot dead by Israeli troops as tanks, bulldozers and armored personnel carriers rolled into the Beit Hanun area. The latest salvos in the escalating Middle East crisis followed threats by the armed wing of Hamas, boycotted as terrorists by Israel and the West, that it would strike civilians in Israel if the Gaza offensive is not halted. Israel has launched its biggest military operation in a year over the abduction of a 19-year-old soldier in a militant attack on June 25, warning it would use all its military might to secure his release. An Egyptian delegation mediating in the crisis over an Israeli soldier abducted by Palestinian militants has met the captive corporal, the pan-Arab newspaper Al-Hayat reported Monday. According to informed Palestinian sources, the Egyptian security delegation met the Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit where he is being held in the Gaza Strip, the paper wrote in its Internet edition.
It did not give the date or location of the meeting with Shalit, who is said to be suffering three bullet wounds but whose condition is reportedly stable.
Meanwhile, President Hosni Mubarak arrived Monday in Saudi Arabia for talks on the Israeli-Palestinian crisis in which Cairo is mediating, an Egyptian diplomat said. Mubarak was received by King Abdullah in the Red Sea city of Jeddah, the diplomat in the Egyptian delegation told AFP. The two leaders were to discuss the situation in the Palestinian territories and Israel s threats to launch an all-out assault on the Gaza Strip to force the release of an Israeli soldier held by Palestinian militants, according to a Riyadh-based Arab diplomat.
Egypt has been leading efforts to try to secure the release of Shalit, who was seized by Palestinian militants in a deadly raid on an army post on the Gaza-Israel border on June 25. Israel has used its firepower against militant and civilian targets across Gaza with wave after wave of night-time air strikes, and in a dramatic warning to Hamas Sunday hit the office of Prime Minister Ismail Haniya. For the first time since Israel launched its Gaza assault early Wednesday, the military sent its armor into the north of the territory, although it has yet to launch a major threatened ground offensive in the area. An AFP photographer saw around 50 tanks and armored personal carriers cross the border and slowly snake their way through farmland before heading towards the outskirts of built-up areas. A limited number of troops entered the northern Gaza Strip to conduct searches for explosive devices and tunnels dug by militants into Israel, a military source said. The raid followed a series of air strikes on weapons depots, a Hamas office and buildings run by the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, a militant group loosely affiliated to Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas Fatah party. Four Palestinians were reported wounded. Haniya appealed for international intervention against Israel s insane policy on Sunday after a helicopter gunship struck at the heart of the Palestinian government, setting his Gaza office ablaze in a missile strike. The armed wing of Hamas threatened to retaliate by resuming attacks inside Israel, threatening a sea of blood if the offensive continued. EU Commission chief Jose Manuel Barroso expressed concern about the escalating violence. We are very concerned and call on both sides to show restraint and put an end to the violence, Barroso told journalists in Finland. UN Secretary General Kofi Annan has already expressed worries that the Israeli onslaught could undermine the possibilities for a lasting settlement of the Middle East conflict. Olmert s government has rejected outright the demands of the three militant groups holding Shalit, which have called for the release of 1,000 Palestinians held in Israeli jails as well as women and children prisoners. It has also threatened to strike at Hamas leaders, including those based in Damascus, raising fears of a regional escalation of the worst crisis in the Middle East since Hamas came to power and Olmert took the helm in Israel. My government has instructed the [IDF Army] and the security establishment to do everything in order to bring Gilad back home … and when I say everything, I mean everything, Olmert told Sunday s cabinet meeting. The Israeli army on Sunday said it had shot dead three more militants in the southern Gaza Strip after approaching an army unit near the territory s disused airport. It was not immediately clear to which faction they belonged. Israel last week hit the Hamas-run interior ministry in Gaza, detained scores of Hamas members in the occupied West Bank including eight ministers and more than 20 lawmakers, and revoked the Jerusalem residency of four others. With the threat of a full-scale Israeli ground offensive looming, already impoverished residents of Gaza, one of the most densely populated areas on the planet with a population of 1.4 million, and are grappling with shortages of food, fuel and electricity. Israel has temporarily opened a border crossing to allow in supplies of humanitarian supplies including food, and it resumed pumping fuel. Agencies
