Kidnapped soldier Gilad Shalit
צילום רפרודוקציה: חגי אהרון
Glasses for Shalit 'bad trap'
Hamas: We rejected Red Cross attempt to deliver glasses to kidnapped soldier to stop Israeli rescue attempt
Hamas has described a Red Cross attempt to deliver glasses to abducted IDF soldier Gilad Shalit as a "bad old trick," and claimed the initiative was part of an Israeli plan to rescue its captive soldier, a Hamas website said Wednesday.
The Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas's military wing, said in a statement, "Zionists have a history of incidents like this when they used Red Cross delegates as a Trojan horse."
"The occupation forces tried many times to trap the resistance men in order to get their soldier without releasing any Palestinian prisoner. They searched a lot for the war arrested soldier in the best tools that they have. However, their intelligence attempts falls down in front of the great will of the resistance men," the statement said.
Citing alleged previous anti-terror tactics, it added: "In one incident, they used Red Cross uniforms to storm an airplane which was hijacked by a group of Palestinians and forced it to land at Ben-Gurion Airport. That incident caused a huge crisis between the International Red Cross and the Palestinian resistance."
"Thus, the resistance men will not be caught in the Zionist trap more than a hundred times and will never (be) defeated by such a mockery trick," it added.
Hamas MP urges further kidnappings
Meanwhile, Hamas's official English-language website quoted a Hamas member of parliament as calling for further kidnappings of IDF soldiers.
"Hammad was speaking in a massive pro-prisoners rally organized Tuesday by the Waed society for prisoners and ex-prisoners in Rafah city, south of Gaza Strip," the Hamas report said.
"The legislator also hailed Hamas' armed wing, the Qassam Brigades, and other Palestinian armed wings for capturing Shalit, urging them to capture more IOF (Israeli Occupation Forces) soldiers to swap them with Palestinian prisoners," the report added.
Both Hammad and Abu Mujahid, spokesman of the PRC (one of the factions that participated in Shalit's abduction) said there was "good news" on a prisoner exchange deal, which they claimed was nearing a conclusion, the website added.
