The Israeli Security Cabinet voted on Wednesday to reject a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip until Palestinian fighters release captured soldier Gilad Shalit.
The cabinet ministers were backing a demand by Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to link the Shalit issue to the status of a proposed truce which would involve the opening of Gaza’s border crossings.
Hamas has once again rejected a link between Shalit and the borders, calling Wednesday's decision a "stab in the back" to the Egyptian-mediated truce talks.
The cabinet agreed after than four hours that "it would be inconceivable" for Israel to accept an Egyptian-proposed cease-fire calling for reopening border crossings to more than limited humanitarian aid without Shalit's release, Interior Minister Meir Sheetrit told Israel Radio.
“Expanded activity at the crossings will be discussed upon the release of Gilad Shalit,” the Security Cabinet agreed, according to a statement.
Shalit was captured in June 2006 in a cross-border raid by Palestinian fighters.
During Wednesday’s meeting, the Israeli leaders also considered a prisoner exchange for the release of Shalit.
Israel imposed a comprehensive blockade on Gaza, a small coastal territory home to 1.5 million Palestinians, after Hamas seized full control of the territory from their Fatah rivals in June 2007. Hamas' central demand in the Egyptian-brokered ceasefire talks is the end of the siege.
In a statement released after the Security Cabinet meeting, the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office said that the ministers agreed that “the release of Gilad Shalit will entail the release of Palestinian prisoners, according to a list that will be formulated and approved, as soon as possible, by the duly authorized Israeli officials.”
“The Rafah crossing will be opened – in coordination with Egypt and the Palestinian Authority – only according to the parameters that were set in November 2006,” the statement added.
(source: agencies)
About Gilad Shalit
Gilad Shalit is an Israeli soldier who was captured in a cross border raid on the crossing Kerem Shalom from the Gaza Strip by Palestinian militants on 25 June 2006 and has been held hostage by Hamas since. Shalit, a soldier of the IDF's Armor Corps, held the rank of corporal at the time of the incident but has since been promoted to staff sergeant.
He became the first Israeli soldier captured by militant Palestinian forces since Nachshon Wachsman in 1994. His abduction and the following cross border raid by Hezbollah, resulting in the abduction of Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev into Lebanon, were key events leading up to the conflicts in Gaza and Lebanon during summer 2006.
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