The most senior Hamas leader outside of Gaza, Khaled Mashaal, said Monday night that Hamas would abduct more Israeli soldiers to exchange for terrorists held in Israeli jails. His statement reiterates Hamas threats issued repeatedly since the election of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu in February.
Speaking at a gathering in Damascus, according to the Associated Press, Mashaal said that release of the Arab prisoners in Israel is a high priority for the jihadist organization he heads from his base in Syria. Hamas would not back down from the conditions it set for the release of IDF soldier Gilad Shalit, he added.
On July 25, 2006, then-18-year-old Gilad Shalit was captured by Hamas and allied terrorists in a raid on a military base just outside Gaza. Two other soldiers were killed in the attack, which included infiltration by way of an underground tunnel. More than two and a half years later, Gilad is still being held captive.
Earlier this month, spokesmen for the Hamas regime in Gaza repeatedly declared that their ransom demands for Shalit will not change. They also warned of more kidnappings if terrorists imprisoned in Israel are not freed.
Hamas official Mushir al-Masri, a leading Gazan member of the Palestinian Authority government, told a rally two weeks ago that abducting more IDF soldiers was one of many options available to exert greater pressure on the Jewish State.
This echoed a threat issued in late March by Ra'ed al-Attar, a senior Hamas terrorist in Gaza, that "if Israel does not accept the demands to free 1,450 prisoners for captive Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, [Hamas'] al-Qassam [Brigades] would kidnap more soldiers." Quoted in the Gaza-based Palestine Today, Attar said, "The Hamas movement is not intending to make any concessions concerning its demands to finalize the prisoners exchange deal, and if this soldier (Shalit) is not enough, we will kidnap more."