Israel 'will ensure Hamas govt toppled' if soldier slain |
| Posted by: Marc Flemming | |
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Israel will work to ensure the Hamas-led government falls if a soldier kidnapped by Palestinian militants is not released alive, a high-ranking security official said.
"We will make sure that the Hamas government ceases to operate if the kidnapped soldier is not returned to us alive," the source told AFP on condition of anonymity.
Yuval Diskin, the head of Israel's Shin Beth homeland security agency, made the threat in talks with Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas late Sunday, the source said.
The Popular Resistance Committees, an armed Palestinian group, claimed Monday in a telephone call to AFP that it was holding the soldier, saying he was alive.
"We are holding the soldier. He is alive and in good health," said the representative of the group, speaking on condition of anonymity.
He gave no indications as to the whereabouts or the missing soldier, 20-year-old Gilad Shavit, who was abducted during a Palestinian attack on an army border post close to the Gaza Strip on Sunday that left two Israeli soldiers and two militants dead.
The Popular Resistance Committees, together with the armed wing of the govering Hamas movement and the previously unknown Army of Islam claimed joint responsibility for the attack.
Israel has vowed to avenge any harm done to the soldier who went missing after militants tunneled into Israel and launched the brazen attack, firing grenades and rockets at an army border post near southern Gaza.
It was the largest attack in the volatile border area since Israel pulled troops and settlers out of the impoverished coastal strip last summer, ending a 38-year presence.
Defence Minister Amir Peretz vowed Sunday a strong Israeli retaliation if the missing soldier were not released unharmed.
"We will take revenge against anyone who injures the soldier, including their leaders," Peretz told reporters.
The security cabinet later approved a series of reprisal operations against the Gaza Strip but agreed to put them off until the missing soldier had been brought home, the privately run Channel 10 television reported.
Shavit's bloodstained bulletproof was found not far from the scene of the attack and thousands of Israelis flocked to Jerusalem's Western Wall Sunday evening to pray for his safe return home.
In a joint statement, the militant groups said the dawn assault was revenge for the 22 civilians killed in an alleged Israeli shelling and botched air strikes since the start of June.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert blamed Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas and the Hamas-led Palestinian government for the attack.
Israel tanks, troops and Apache combat helicopters stormed into southern Gaza in response to search for the missing soldier and investigate the tunnel used by the attackers.
Public radio reported that further forces were massing on the border.
"This attack was carried out and spearheaded by senior members of the Hamas and authorized by the party's leadership," an army spokesman told AFP.
"The IDF (Israel Defence Force) holds the Palestinian Authority and democratically elected Hamas government responsible for the attack and the fate of the missing soldier."
The deputy prime minister of the Hamas government Nasseredine al-Shaer, demanded the immediate release of the soldier.
"I demand that this Israel soldier be freed immediately," Shaer told a news conference in the West Bank political capital of Ramallah.
But Shaer's call for the release of a soldier believed held by militants loyal to his own movement drew condemnation from Israeli ambassador to the United Nations Danny Gillerman.
"Hamas has once again proved that it is the worst sort of terrorist organization," Gillerman told AFP in Jerusalem.
Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni urged the moderate Palestinian Authority president to act swiftly to release the soldier, by force if necessary.
"This is an opportunity for Abu Mazen (Abbas) to prove how serious his intentions are. Israel expects him to act immediately to return the kidnapped soldier to Israel and he has the necessary military means to do so," she said.
Abbas, who was locked in talks with Hamas aimed at ending deadly political feuding between the Islamic militant group and his mainstream Fatah faction, condemned the attack.
Source: AP |
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| Posted by: Marc Flemming | |
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Israeli Military Build up on the border of Gaza - US urges calm over Israeli gunner
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has urged Israel to "give diplomacy a chance" in the standoff over an Israeli soldier held by Palestinian militants.
Israeli tanks and troops are massing on the border of Gaza, where it is thought the soldier is being held.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has warned a large scale military operation is rapidly approaching.
"There really needs to be an effort now to try and calm the situation," Ms Rice told reporters en route to Pakistan.
Mr Olmert has refused to release any Palestinian prisoners in exchange for information about tank gunner Gilad Shalit.
He was responding to a demand by three militant groups that women and youths should be freed from Israeli jails.
Intense diplomatic efforts have been under way since the soldier's disappearance, including mediation by an Egyptian delegation in the Gaza Strip.
The BBC's Jon Leyne, in Jerusalem, says that if mediation efforts fail both Israel and the Palestinians face huge tests.
vThe Israeli leader must choose between going ahead with military action that would endanger the life of the captured soldier or risk being seen as weak, our correspondent says.
And the Hamas-led Palestinian government must decide whether they are really willing to risk a full-scale attack from the Israelis which could have disastrous consequences.
There are also fears a severe humanitarian crisis and a large numbers of casualties should Israel invades Gaza.
Mr Olmert has put the army on standby for an extensive military operation against Palestinian militants to free Cpl Shalit and Israeli tanks and armoured vehicles have been assembling on the Gaza border.
"The question of freeing [Palestinian] prisoners is in no way on the Israeli government agenda," Mr Olmert said during a speech in Jerusalem.
"There will be no negotiations, no bargaining, no agreements."
Mr Olmert said that Israel would not allow itself to become the victim of "Hamas-terrorist blackmail", warning that "a large-scale military operation is approaching".
Cpl Shalit is believed to have been seized by militants who tunnelled out of Gaza to attack the army post at Kerem Shalom.
Two Israeli troops and two militants were killed during the raid.
Hamas political leaders have denied any knowledge of the tank gunner's whereabouts - but they have called for him to be well treated.
The faxed statement calling for the prisoners' release was signed by the Popular Resistance Committees umbrella group, Hamas's Izzedine al-Qassam Brigades, and the previously unknown Army of Islam.
It said: "The Occupation [Israel] will not get any information about its missing soldier until it commits to the following:
"First, the immediate release of all women in prison. Second, the immediate release of all children in prison younger than 18."
Israel is believed to have incarcerated about 100 women and 300 under-18s among the 9,000 Palestinian prisoners it is holding in its jails.
Israeli officials say they hold Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minister Ismail Haniya, of Hamas, responsible for the 19-year-old Israeli's safety.
Correspondents say the crisis could spoil efforts to bind Hamas into a plan implicitly recognising Israel, and may expose divisions between hardline and more pragmatic Hamas elements.
Source: BBC |
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