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Palestinian Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades militants participate in a demonstration calling for the release of prisoners jailed in Israel. (AP)
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| By Israel Insider staff and partners June 27, 2006 |
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| Palestinian boys hold a sign in Hebrew calling for the release of prisoners jailed in Israel during a demonstration demanding their release in Gaza City. (AP) |
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A Palestinian militant on Tuesday said a captured Israeli soldier is being held in a "secure place," the first information about the soldier's whereabouts since he was abducted two days ago.
"The soldier is in a secure place that the Zionists cannot reach," said Mohammed Abdel Al, spokesman for the Popular Resistance Committees.
The PRC was one of the groups that participated in the cross-border infiltration Sunday in which militants killed two soldiers and abducted Cpl. Gilad Shalit. Militants have not said where Shalit is being held.
A leader of the Hamas Islamic group said Tuesday that he believes Israel will give in to the demands of Palestinian militants who kidnapped an Israeli soldier.
The lawmaker, Yehieh Mussa, also called for international mediation between the sides in the affair that began when Palestinian militants attacked an Israeli army base near the Gaza Strip on Sunday and kidnapped a soldier. Israel believes the Hamas military wing is holding the soldier, although the group has not confirmed this.
"They are going to surrender, they are going to give in," Mussa said in an interview with a Web site affiliated with Hamas.
A leaflet signed by the Hamas militant wing has called for the release of female Palestinian prisoners and those under the age of 18 from Israeli jails in return for the release of the soldier. Israel has said it will not release prisoners.
International mediation is necessary to help solve the kidnapping crisis, Mussa said. He said international mediators are preferable to Arab interlocutors, including Egypt, because all Arabs should be firmly on the Palestinian side.
Israel believes that Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, of Hamas, is involved in contacts with the militants to win the release of the soldier.
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