CAIRO: The exiled political head of the Palestinian movement Hamas accused Israel of refusing to free Arab prisoners in exchange for the release of a captured soldier, according to remarks published Thursday. The idea is to free [Israeli soldier Gilad] Shalit and that Israel would then release detainees in a political context, Khaled Meshaal said in an interview with the pan-Arab Al-Hayat newspaper. Meshaal said Hamas wants the release of 1,000 detainees including women and children and that Israel had refused the principle of an exchange.
The Hamas leader, who lives in exile in Syria, also accused Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert of hindering the agreement.
Shalit was captured on June 25 by three groups of Palestinian militants, including Hamas, during a cross-border raid between Israel and the Gaza Strip. The captors have demanded that Israel free Arab prisoners in exchange for his return. Shalit s seizure sparked a massive Israeli military offensive in Gaza, and was followed in July by the separate capture of two more Israeli soldiers by Lebanese Hezbollah militants. Israeli officials have vowed that Meshaal is a marked man for allegedly ordering Shalit s capture. Meshaal also reiterated Hamas s refusal to agree to conditions required by the Middle East quartet of the United States, European Union, Russia and the United Nations in order to restore international funding to the Hamas-led Palestinian government. The United States and European Union froze aid to the Palestinian government after the Islamist movement won a landslide victory in January s election, a move which has crippled the already impoverished Palestinian territories. We have said that we will not submit to the quartet s conditions because they are unjust in principle and we refuse to link pin our destiny on the conditions of the enemy.
The quartet has demanded the Palestinian government abide by previously signed Israeli-Palestinian peace deals, renounce violence and recognize Israel s right to exist. Meshaal said that past Palestinian and Arab leaders who agreed to those deals received nothing solid on the ground… Why repeat the experiences of others if they achieved nothing?
