Hamas: Soldier to be kept alive
Moussa Abu Marzouk, deputy of Hamas political leader Khaled Mashaal, says Israel's military offensive in Gaza could jeopardize life of kidnapped Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit; adds he believes abductors want to keep soldier alive to trade him for Palestinians detained by Israel
Moussa Abu Marzouk, the deputy of Hamas political leader Khaled Mashaal, spoke hours after Israeli jets blasted a Gaza power station, knocking out electricity in most of the territory, and Israeli tanks and thousands of troops took up positions near the town of Rafah.
Israel said the offensive, its first offensive in Gaza since it withdrew from the coastal strip in September, was designed to force the release of Corporal Gilad Shalit, whom Hamas-linked militants kidnapped Sunday in a raid on an Israeli military camp near the Gaza border.
"Gaza is a small area," Abu Marzouk told The Associated Press in an interview. "Cleansing the area (by the Israeli army) would certainly affect the life of the prisoner soldier. He is among the resistance people."
Abu Marzouk said he believed the abductors want to keep the soldier alive to trade him for Palestinians detained by Israel.
"For sure, he's in hands that will protect him and treat him well. Our morals and our religion dictate that we do this to every prisoner," Abu Marzouk said.
Abu Marzouk said Egypt is mediating with the Israelis and the "military people" in Hamas to negotiate an end to the standoff.
Several Arab countries, which he declined to name, are pressing Hamas "to find a political" settlement to the abduction, he said.
"We don't object to a political solution," said Abu-Marzouk. "But it's up to Israel to accept the Egyptian mediation to talk about conditions for a deal regarding the Israeli prisoner."
Abu Marzouk said Syrian President Bashar Assad, whose country hosts him and Mashaal, is not involved in the prisoner issue.
But in the Palestinian territories, an aide to President Mahmoud Abbas said both Abbas and Egyptian officials had called Assad to ask him to persuade Mashaal to free the soldier.
Abu Marzouk said he knew nothing of reports that a Hamas delegation, possibly led by Mashaal, would be going to Cairo soon.
In Beirut on Wednesday, another Hamas official said Israel's incursion would not change the group's demand for a prisoner exchange involving the Israeli soldier.
If Israelis do not negotiate a prisoner swap, Palestinian militants will conclude "that they should capture more soldiers so that the Israelis will speak to them ... The message for the resistance is to kill soldiers, even if they have the opportunity to capture them," Hamas' representative in Lebanon, Osama Hamdan, told The Associated Press.
Hamdan warned of serious consequences if Israel carried out a threat to kill Mashaal, the Hamas leader who lives in Damascus, Syria. Israel believes Mashaal ordered the Sunday raid, and its Justice Minister Haim Ramon has said Mashaal is a target for assassination.
'Consequences of killing Mashaal could be bigger than imagined'
Hamdan repeated Hamas denials that Mashaal ordered the attack, and said Israel should think twice about assassinating him.
"They have to think thoroughly about the consequences (of killing Mashaal), which could be bigger than they imagine," Hamdan said.
Israel tried to kill Mashaal with poison in Jordan in 1997, but botched the operation and was forced to make humiliating concessions to secure the release of two Mossad agents. As Mashaal lay seriously ill in hospital, Jordan's King Hussein forced Israel to provide the antidote and release the imprisoned Hamas spiritual leader, Sheik Ahmed Yassin, in return for the Israeli agents.
Hamdan referred to the 1997 event to point out that there was a precedent for Israel exchanging prisoners involving Hamas, an organization that Israel regards as terrorist and refuses to deal with.
"Israel deals with the principle of exchange even with the Hamas movement," Hamdan said.
Hamdan said Hamas would insist on swapping the Israeli corporal for Palestinian detainees. Israel is said to hold about 8,000 Palestinians in its prisons.
"Our position does not change: We have said there is a national interest to achieve through discussing a mechanism to win the release of prisoners in the occupation jails in return for the soldier," He said.
In Jordan, political analyst Labib Kamhawi said he did not think the Israeli incursion would force Hamas to change its policies. Since it took over the Palestinian government earlier this year, Hamas has come under heavy international and domestic pressure to recognize Israel and renounce violence, but it has refused.
"The military retaliation will not solve the problem and will not change Hamas' policies toward the recognition of Israel or carrying out other attacks," Kamhawi said.
Kamhawi said he did not think the Hamas leadership ordered its guerrillas to attack the camp and kidnap the Israeli soldier.
Referring to the long-stalled peace negotiations, Kamhawi said: "The stubbornness of the Israelis created frustration among the Palestinian fighters, which led them to carry out that attack."
