Militant says Israeli soldier in ‘secure place’

updated 4:48 p.m. ET June 27, 2006

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip - A Palestinian militant group said Tuesday an abducted Israeli soldier was alive in a “secure place,” as thousands of Israeli and Egyptian troops massed along the borders with Gaza in anticipation of an Israeli invasion.

Negotiators from the ruling Hamas movement, trying to defuse building tensions, said they had accepted a document implicitly recognizing Israel. But two Syrian-based Hamas leaders denied a final deal had been reached.

Israel said only freedom for the captive soldier, Cpl. Gilad Shalit, could defuse the crisis, not a political agreement.

Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev said Tuesday’s agreement between Hamas and the Fatah Party of President Mahmoud Abbas was a “non-starter” because it failed to meet international demands.

Regev said Hamas leaders “should have been trying to orchestrate the release of Cpl. Shalit” rather than “devoting time and energy to other matters of no real significance.”

Shalit’s abduction Sunday by Hamas’ military wing and two other Hamas-linked groups has threatened to turn already devastated relations between Israel and the Hamas-led government into an all-out war. Hamas took over the Palestinian Authority after winning parliamentary elections in January, and has been under international pressure to renounce violence and recognize Israel.

Rice: ‘Give diplomacy a chance’
White House press secretary Tony Snow said he had only seen media accounts of the Hamas-Fatah accord, but reiterated that Hamas had to meet three conditions before a crippling aid boycott could be lifted.

“Once again, we can all recite from memory now: recognize Israel’s right to exist, renounce terror, and abide by all past agreements. Those are the preconditions,” Snow said in Washington.

On a flight to Pakistan, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice urged Israel to “give diplomacy a chance.”

Complicating matters was a new claim by the Hamas-linked Popular Resistance Committees, one of the three groups that carried out Sunday’s assault, that it had also kidnapped a Jewish settler in the West Bank.

Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said the report was being taken “very seriously,” and military officials said there was “rising fears” the claim was true.

‘Back channel’ negotiations
The fate of the 19-year-old captive soldier has riveted Israelis, with Shalit’s face plastered on newspapers and callers to talk shows praying for his safety.

In an interview Tuesday with The Associated Press, Noam Shalit begged the captors of his wounded son’s to provide medical care and asked “to hear his voice and to see his face.”

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert rejected the kidnappers’ demands to free Palestinian prisoners and instead approved plans for a military push into Gaza. About 3,000 soldiers, along with tanks and armored vehicles, massed along Israel’s border with the territory, and commanders said they were awaiting orders to move in.

Hamas’ Web site said there were “back channel” negotiations with Israel over a prisoner release.

Israeli military officials said a negotiating team has been activated, but declined to release further information.

The kidnappers did not say where Shalit was being held or release any photos of him. Israeli officials said they believed the soldier suffered light wounds to his stomach and was being held in southern Gaza.

PRC: No release without something in return
On Tuesday, for the first time since Sunday’s assault, in which two Israeli soldiers and two militants were killed, militants acknowledged they were holding Shalit and said he was alive.

“The soldier is in a secure place that the Zionists cannot reach,” said Mohammed Abdel Al, spokesman for the Popular Resistance Committees. He said his group also took a West Bank settler hostage.

Mohammad Nazal, a Damascus-based member of the Hamas politburo, said the militant group would not agree to free the Israeli soldier “without a deal.”

“No release without something in return,” he told AP. “This is the popular demand and we cannot let down our people.”

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