Hamas-led Palestinian foreign ministry demands prisoner swap Wednesday

June 28, 2006, 6:42 PM (GMT+02:00)

Tuesday, the Palestinian Hamas kidnappers of Israel soldier Gilead Shalit broke off contact with foreign diplomatic mediators. In the three days since his abduction, none of the diplomats seeking to negotiate his release attained direct access to the kidnappers before the effort, led by Egypt, France, Turkey and others, broke down.

It is feared that the Hamas faction holding the Israeli corporal have smuggled him out of the Gaza Strip through Sinai to a hostile Arab country, using the services of the Semhadana clan’s gunrunners, who are after revenge for Israel’s assassination of their kinsman. It is also possible that he has been put in the hands of al Qaeda cells in Sinai, Egypt, Sudan, Iraq or Lebanon.

Israel’s armed forces are making every effort to prevent the Israeli hostage from being taken out of the Gaza Strip, but without firm knowledge of where he is hidden, they are groping in the dark. The IDF are now paying in full the price for passing the Philadelphi border strip to Egyptian security (and intelligence) control.

Earlier, Palestinian PRC umbrella spokesman Muhammed al-Al said Gilead Shalit has been moved to hideout where “the Zionists will never reach him”

DEBKAfile: The Palestinians are waging a war of nerves, countering IDF statement of action underway to prevent the Israeli hostage’s transfer outside the Gaza Strip from a location in the south.