Israeli army chief Dan Halutz on Monday rejected a 24-hour ultimatum set by the captors of an Israeli soldier held in the Gaza Strip who are demanding the release of Palestinian prisoners.
”We will not give in to any blackmailing or to any ultimatum put forth by any terror organisation, and in this specific case, by Hamas,” Halutz told reporters after meeting the parents of 19-year-old serviceman Gilad Shalit.
Halutz reiterated that Israel was ready to take military action in order to retrieve Shalit, who is believed to be held in southern Gaza.
”We will do everything necessary and possible to bring him back home,” Halutz said.
”We see in them the captors of Gilad and that their commanders bear the responsibility for Gilad’s health.”
Three Palestinian militant groups that abducted the teenage Israeli serviceman eight days ago set a deadline of 6am (3am GMT) on Tuesday for Israel to meet their demands, warning of unspecified consequences.
”Faced with the Zionist enemy’s persistence in taking military measures and aggressions, we give it a delay expiring Tuesday July 4 at 6am [3am GMT],” a statement said.
”If the enemy does not meet the demands we laid out in our previous statement … we will consider the matter closed and the enemy will be responsible for all results,” said the statement from the Popular Resistance Committees, the armed wing of the ruling Hamas movement and the Army of Islam.
The three groups holding Shalit have demanded the release of ”1 000 Palestinian, Arab, Muslim and other prisoners,” adding that all detained leaders of Palestinian movements, elderly and sick detainees should be freed.
They have also reiterated an earlier demand for the release of women and juvenile prisoners from Israeli jails, and urged Israel to end its retaliatory military offensive in the Palestinian territories.
The same three factions admitted carrying out the June 25 assault in which the soldier was seized and two other soldiers and two Palestinian fighters killed.
The militants said the abduction was to avenge the deaths of 22 Palestinian civilians killed in an alleged Israeli shelling and a series of botched air strikes.
Solution needs ‘efforts on both sides’
Meanwhile, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov called on Monday for Palestinian militants to release Shalit and stop attacking Israeli cities. He called on Israel to exercise restraint.
”The most important thing right now is to achieve the release of the captive Israeli soldier,” Lavrov said, adding that Moscow was using all available channels to assist in that aim.
He and his Israeli counterpart Tzipi Livni held talks as tensions between Israel and the Palestinians soared over the kidnapping.
”We also expect that the Palestinians would stop shelling Israeli cities and that the Palestinian leadership would take all the measures to achieve that goal,” Lavrov said, speaking to reporters alongside Livni.
”But as I have already said, it is possible to normalise the situation only through efforts on both sides … so we also call on the Israeli government for maximum restraint,” Lavrov said.
”We believe that responsible actions on both sides and the efforts of the international community will eventually lead us all to the moment when the negotiating process can be restarted … and we expect and hope that in the end the ‘road map’ will be implemented,” he said.
Lavrov stressed it was necessary to ”by all means to stop the spiral of violence, which requires restraint and wisdom”.
Livni said she had hesitated to come to Russia at such a tense time, but said Israel believed Russia’s role ”can be very important” in helping solve the crisis.
She thanked Lavrov for calling for the unconditional release of the soldier.
”I hope that the signal that Russia and the international community are sending will help us achieve the desired result,” she said.
However, she expressed Israel’s displeasure with Russia’s having hosted a high-level Hamas delegation earlier this year, when Moscow broke ranks with other members of the so-called Quartet of Mideast negotiators.
”If someone still had any doubts about the character of Hamas, the recent events days have demonstrated that the government claims responsibility for terrorist attacks and strives to conduct negotiations concerning those terrorist attacks with Israel,” Livni said.
President Vladimir Putin invited Hamas leaders to Moscow earlier this year in a controversial overture that failed to persuade the militant group to soften its anti-Israel stance and renounce its goal to seek Israel’s destruction.
”Elections are not some kind of a washing machine whereby a terrorist organisation can wash itself. Terror is terror,” Livni said. – Sapa-AP