A source in Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's office denied a media report Friday that Hamas leaders sitting in Israeli jails had been authorized by the terrorist organization to negotiate a prisoner swap deal for the release of kidnapped IDF Cpl. Gilad Shalit.
"This is a trick which was intended to relieve Hamas' chiefs of the responsibility [for releasing Shalit]," said the source. In a statement to IDF Radio, the Prime Minister's Office said that "Israel does not negotiate with Hamas."
Palestinian Parliament Member" Ayman Dararma of Hamas also denied the report that quoted him saying the Hamas prisoners would determine the fate of the abducted soldier.
Dararma said that a "foreign" reporter had interviewed him for the Persian Gulf newspaper Al Halij, and that there had apparently been a misunderstanding. He also claimed he was not in touch with the Hamas leadership and had no connection to the negotiations over Cpl. Shalit.
According to the interview printed Friday in Al-Halij, Hamas terrorist leaders serving sentences in Israeli jails will be the ones to decide which fellow prisoners will be short-listed for freedom in exchange for the release of kidnapped IDF Cpl. Gilad Shalit.
Dararma was quoted as saying that the jailed terrorists have been authorized to negotiate directly with Israeli officials on the prisoner swap deal, and that senior Israeli officials have already met several times with the terrorist convicts.
Hamas spokesman Ayman Taha confirmed in Gaza earlier in the week that the meetings had taken place, government-controlled Voice of Israel Radio reported. But by Friday, the radio station was reporting that Hamas deputy political bureau head Moussa Abu Marzouk said only Egypt has the authority to negotiate for Shalit’s release. He denied reports of talks by prisoners or anyone else on the matter.
The issue of how many and which jailed terrorists will be freed in exchange for the kidnapped soldiers, as well as when and how, has been batted about with the Palestinian Authority for months. Each time, promised “imminent” deals fell through.
Egyptian negotiators have had to contend with trying to secure a deal to free Shalit while also negotiating one failed truce after another between the Hamas and Fatah factions.
The French Connection
Shalit’s family published an open letter to their son Friday in the French newspaper Le Figaro. The Shalits, along with the families of IDF reservists Eldad Regev and Ehud Goldwasser, who were abducted last year by Hizbullah terrorists, are hoping to pressure Portugal and France to help save their sons.
The families flew first to Portugal this week, where they were to meet with officials from the European Union and the International Red Cross committee.
The three families are set to attend a rally in Paris for the release of their sons on Sunday, to be followed by meetings on Monday with President Nicolas Sarkozy and Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner. Gilad's father Noam Shalit also holds French citizenship.
The elder Shalit’s letter to his son noted that the captive is being held as a prisoner of war, but is not being allowed “the conventional rights given to prisoners of war according to international law and according to the religion of Islam.”
Shalit was seized in Israel during a cross-border raid by a team of three terrorist groups on June 25, 2006. Four other soldiers were wounded and two were killed in the attack, which occurred near the Kerem Shalom border crossing.