Hamas militants in Gaza posted an audio tape of a captive Israeli soldier on the Net on Monday, hours before their rivals for power among the Palestinians were to hold a summit with Israel.
As Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas flew in to Egypt’s Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh to meet Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Sergeant Gilad Shalit was heard asking for treatment and urging Israel to free Palestinian prisoners.
A spokesperson for Hamas, who routed Abbas’s secular forces in Gaza this month to split the coastal enclave from Abbas’s larger stronghold in the West Bank said it was up to Israel to make a deal to free Shalit, a 20-year-old conscript.
“The only beneficiary of these summits is the Zionist enemy,” said a member of the Hamas majority in the now moribund Palestinian Parliament. “It is surprising that when Abbas has shut the door on talks with Hamas, he is begging for a meeting with Olmert.”
Shalit was seized a year ago to the day by militants who tunnelled up to his border post and killed two other soldiers. Shalit, whose only previous contact with the outside world was a handwritten note nine months ago, said: “I regret the lack of interest of the Israeli government and military in my case.” Thousands of Palestinian detainees have mothers and fathers whose sons must be returned to them.”
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