West Bank – “Israeli media reports suggesting that progress has been made in the Shalit deal are baseless,” Hassan Yusuf, a senior Hamas official in the West Bank, said on Thursday.
Yusuf, who was quoted by the Islamist group’s newspaper al-Risalah, said that negotiations meant to secure the release of the kidnapped IDF soldier were deadlocked.
Meanwhile, Hamas operative Abdullah Barghouti, who is serving 67 life terms in Israel for terror offenses, claimed that senior defense establishment officials have been negotiating part of the deal with him – within prison walls.
“When the Israeli government proves that it is serious, Hamas will negotiate on Shalit,” he said. Israel’s pressure in the case, he concluded, will not prevail.
Hopefully, this focus on Shalit will not divert attention from the real priority over the next few weeks of protecting against any border incidents by Palestinian terrorists in association with the UN resolution vote and U.S. veto in the Security Council. It seems crazy to be negotiation with Bhargouti, a major terrorist held in Israeli jails. What happened to the policy of never negotiating with terrorists.
Gilad ben Aviva…. you are in our tefillos always
I hope and pray he is released right away!
let the terrorist out! As long as Israel has Shalit first. Don’t trust Hamas. Put a tracking device in the terrorist before releasing him so he can be tracked. That way he will lead the Shin Bet to the wolf’s lair.