The kidnapping of Elizabeth Tsurkov led Palestinians in Gaza to take advantage of the abduction as an opportunity to demand a prisoner exchange, according to reports in the Arab media.
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Activists and members of the Palestinian Prisoners' Committee called for the release of security prisoners by Israel to be part of any agreement for the return of the Russian-Israeli researcher, who was kidnapped in Iraq.
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A demonstration in the Gaza Strip to demand a prisoner swap for the release of Elizabeth Tzurkov
(Photo: Mohammed Abed / AFP)
Accompanied by families of the suspected terrorists held by Israeli security forces, the activists held a rally in front of the Red Cross headquarters in the Gaza Strip, holding up Elizabeth Tsurkov's photo alongside those of Palestinian prisoners. Their demand was that Iraq put pressure on Israel to accept an exchange agreement.
The coordinator of the prisoners' committee, Zaki Dababash, addressed the researcher's kidnappers directly, declaring, "The freedom of 5,000 prisoners depends on Allah and on a prisoner exchange process that you can implement."
For the time being, the demonstration was a local initiative by political activists and relatives of Palestinian prisoners, and not an official demand by Hamas or Palestinian Islamic Jihad, who have yet to comment on the kidnapping.
The Iraqi militia that kidnapped Tsurkov reportedly tried to transfer her to Iran, a new report said on Sunday. The new details revealed by Arab intelligence sources claimed the academic herself initiated a meeting with her future captors.
In a second meeting, the Iraqi Kataib Hezbollah militia discovered she is Israeli and decided to kidnap her. According to the sources, there was at least one attempt to move Tsurkov overland to Iran. It is not known whether the group was successful.