It is proper for Israel to conduct "indirect negotiations" with Hamas in order to win the release of kidnapped IDF soldier Gilad Shalit, Transportation and Road Safety Minister Shaul Mofaz (Kadima) said Monday morning. Israel officially has banned all contacts with the terrorist party.

Mofaz, a member of the Security Cabinet, cautioned that contacts with Hamas are limited to freeing Shalit and that Israel must take the offensive against the Hamas terrorist infrastructure. In an interview with Voice of Israel government radio, he also declined to predict if the current Kadima coalition government will fall and if and when he will announce his candidacy to replace Kadima leader Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. The former Defense Minister and IDF Chief of Staff denied rumors that he has met with nine other Kadima Knesset Members to create a new faction that would be aligned with the Likud party, with which he was affiliated before former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon formed Kadima.