Israel could be prepared to free some Palestinian prisoners if militants first release a soldier they seized last month, Interior Minister Roni Bar-On said on Monday.
”If the soldier is released, we could again consider a release of prisoners as we were doing before his abduction,” Bar-On told Israel’s private Channel 10 television network.
”The prime minister, when he met [Palestinian leader Mahmoud] Abbas in Jordan, had raised a possible release of young people, women and the sick, which was not purely theoretical,” the minister added.
”The entire project was totally swept aside by the attack, but the soldier’s return would bring this back on the agenda,” said Bar-On, a member of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s Kadima party.
Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni separately told Parliament that during Olmert’s informal meeting with Abbas in Petra on June 22, hosted by Jordanian King Abullah II, that the question of prisoner releases had been raised.
The two Cabinet ministers, however, stressed that Israel would certainly not negotiate Corporal Gilad Shalit’s release in exchange for freeing certain Palestinian prisoners, ruling out any talks with Hamas ”terrorists”.
Nineteen-year-old Shalit was captured by Palestinian militants in a brazen raid on an army outpost in Israel on June 25.
Three militant groups, including the armed wing of the governing Hamas movement, claimed responsibility for the attack. His captors have since demanded that Israel release Palestinian women and minors from its jails.
In a second statement, the groups also demanded the release of ”1 000 Palestinian, Arab, Muslim and other prisoners”.
While earlier defending a wide-scale Israeli military offensive in the Gaza Strip aimed at securing Shalit’s release and stopping Palestinian rocket attacks, Olmert ruled out any talks with Hamas or any prisoner trade-off. — AFP
