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| By Israel Insider staff July 6, 2007 |
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Hamas leaders in Israeli jails are authorized to conduct direct negotiations with Israel over the release of captured IDF soldier, Cpl. Gilad Shalit, Palestinian Authority terrorist-legislator Ayman Darameh of Hamas told the Persian-Gulf based newspaper Al-Halij.
Darameh said that talks about Shalit's release were "at the moment in the hands of the Hamas prisoners," noting that the prisoners and senior Israeli officials had already held several meetings on the issue. The jailed Hamas leaders were authorized to set the list of prisoners Hamas demanded to be freed in exchange for the captured IDF soldier.
He added that Hamas demanded that Israeli Arabs and east Jerusalem residents would be included in the deal.
Israel Radio reported Hamas spokesman in Gaza, Ayman Taha, confirmed that there had been meetings between Israeli officials and leaders of the Hamas prisoners.
However, Deputy head of Hamas's political bureau in Syria, Moussa Abu Marzouk, said that only Egypt was authorized to conduct talks over a prisoner swap deal and no other mediators were involved. Hamas demanded the release of 350 male prisoners whose names had been handed over to Israel, in addition to all imprisoned women and minors.
It had been agreed that Israel would free the prisoners in three stages but talks were halted after Israel rejected the prisoner list, because of its inclusion of many terrorists with "blood on their hands," a diplomatic euphemism for killing or seriously wounding civilians, including Fatah terrorist Marwan Barghoui.
Marzouk expected Israel to cave in eventually to all Hamas demands "since it has no other way of securing Gilad Shalit's freedom."
Meanwhile, Gilad's family published an open letter to him in the French daily Le Figaro (in French, PDF format) in the runup to a planned visit to France next week, in which they are scheduled to meet with French President Nicolas Sarkozy.
Noam expressed regret that although Gilad's captors declared that he was a prisoner of war, "they are not allowing you the conventional rights given to prisoners of war according to international law and according to the Islamic religion."
The letter was written by father Noam, 53, together with his wife Aviva, 52, and their other children Yoel, 24, and Hadas, 17. |
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