By Avi Issacharoff, Haaretz Correspondent and News Agencies-28/06/2006
Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas accused Israel on Wednesday of carrying out "crimes against humanity" with its incursion into Gaza Strip.
Israel Defense Forces operation Summer Rain, which began early Wednesday, has included air strikes against power stations and bridges and a tank invasion in the southern Gaza Strip, with the aim of releasing Corporal Gilad Shalit, abducted during an attack Sunday on an IDF base near Gaza.
"The president considers the aggression that targeted the civilian infrastructures as collective punishment and crimes against humanity," Abbas said in a statement released by his office. He called for international intervention to pressure Israel to stop the operation.
Hamas official: Gaza strike hasn`t changed demand for prisoner swap
The IDF incursion into Gaza will not change Hamas` demand for the release of Palestinian detainees in Israeli prisons in exchange for Shalit, Hamas` representative in Lebanon, Osama Hamdan, said Wednesday.
If Israelis do not negotiate a prisoner swap, Palestinians militants will conclude that they should capture more IDF soldiers or "kill soldiers even if they have the opportunity to capture them," Hamdan told The Associated Press.
Hamdan said the Gaza incursion "cannot be justified."
He also warned of serious consequences if Israel carried out a threat to kill Hamas political bureau chief Khaled Meshal.
Hamdan repeated Hamas denials that Meshal ordered Sunday`s attack, and said Israel should think twice about assassinating him.
Hamdan said Hamas is sticking to its demand for swapping Shalit for Palestinian detainees. Israel is said to hold about 8,000 Palestinians in
its prisons.
"Our position does not change: We have said there is a national interest to achieve through discussing a mechanism to win the release of prisoners in the occupation jails in return for the soldier," he said.
If Israel does not negotiate, the militants will take it as a message "that they should capture more soldiers so that the Israelis will speak to them ... the message for the resistance is to kill soldiers, even if they have the opportunity to capture them," Hamdan said.
Senior Hamas official: Abduction of IDF soldier was inhumane
A senior Hamas official, Adnan Asfur, has called for the immediate release of Shalit, saying the abduction was inhumane.
According to Asfur, the minimum act required of Israel is to end the economic siege on the PA.
"We must release the kidnapped soldier, just as the Palestinian prisoners must be released," said Asfur, a known associate of exiled Hamas political bureau chief Khaled Meshal. He added that Israel must implement a number of measures to make the soldier`s release possible.
"These are not demands for his release. I have no connection to the abductors. This was strictly an act of the military wing. But if Israel is interested in facilitating the soldier`s release, it must end the economic siege, commit not to invade Gaza and release prisoners."
Asfur, a resident of the West Bank city of Nablus, refused to specify the number of prisoners that need to be released from Israeli jails in exchange for Shalit.
He stressed that the abduction occurred within the framework of a military operation, but did not express enthusiasm for the kidnapping or its possible implications.
"It is not in the interest of Hamas or the Palestinian nation, that Israel return and reoccupy the Gaza Strip," he said. He went on to claim that there is no crisis in Hamas, only disagreements.
Former Palestinian national security advisor Jibril Rajoub visited Cairo on Tuesday, where he met with senior Egyptian officials and expressed his concern that Israel would launch a major military operation in Gaza.
