GAZA CITY, 5 July 2006 — Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert yesterday ignored a deadline over a seized Israeli soldier and instead issued a veiled threat against Syria, vowing a long war. He threatened to strike at “those who sponsor” the militants in the Gaza Strip.
Palestinians holding the soldier said the hostage would not be killed even though a deadline for their demands to be met expired at 6 a.m. yesterday.
The Palestinian Ramatan news agency quoted Abu Muthana, the spokesman of the Islamic Army, as saying: “In Islam we don’t kill hostages.” He added that the case was now “closed” and Israel had missed its chance to receive any information about the soldier, 19- year-old Cpl. Gilad Shalit.
But Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh urged that diplomatic efforts to solve the crisis be given more time, and called on the kidnappers to spare the soldier’s life.
Olmert, who had rejected the ultimatum, for his part warned that the offensive which Israel has launched to secure the soldier’s release could develop into a “long war,” which required “a lot of patience.” He spoke as more ground troops rolled about one kilometer into the northern Gaza Strip and also took up positions on the Palestinian side of the Erez Crossing point.
Speaking at a business conference in southern Israel, Olmert repeated his long-standing refusal to negotiate with Shalit’s captors. “We won’t negotiate with terror elements and we won’t let anyone believe that kidnapping is a tool to bring Israel to its knees,” he said.
He told the audience he has ordered the army to push forward with efforts “to strike terrorists and those who sent them and those who sponsor them,” an apparent reference to Syria. “None of them will be immune.”
An Israeli government spokesman, meanwhile, said Israel had “uncontestable information” that Shalit was alive. “We know that he is injured, that he was visited by a Palestinian doctor a few days ago,” Avi Pazner told the French LCI television station.
The Israeli government had earlier said it would react “in a way and on a scale” unheard of so far if Shalit was harmed, threatening to further escalate its offensive.
“The heavens will fall on Hamas,” warned Interior Minister Roni Bar-On, referring to the ruling Palestinian movement, whose armed wing has claimed responsibility for the abduction jointly with two other groups.
A senior Hamas leader, Osama Al-Muzeini, later told reporters in Gaza that the three groups had pulled out of mediation talks with foreign diplomats due to Israel’s refusal to heed their demands.
An army spokeswoman said the Erez Crossing was closed due to a “security alert,” adding the army was looking for tunnels and explosives in the area. An army unit has also been operating on the outskirts of Beit Hanoun further to the east since Monday.
Israeli soldiers, meanwhile, shot dead one Palestinian and injured another early yesterday in the northern West Bank city of Jenin, hospital officials reported.
Israel also carried out two more airstrikes overnight, killing a Hamas fighter in northern Gaza late Monday and hitting a building in the campus of Gaza City’s Islamic University, Palestinian security officials reported.
— With input from agencies
