Exiled Hamas leader says Shalit is 'prisoner of war'

Exiled Hamas leader Kahled Meshal speaking to reporters in Damascus on Monday. (Reuters)

July 10, 2006

Meshal insists on prisoner swap for return of abducted soldier

By Amos Harel, Avi Issacharoff, Gideon Alon, Aluf Benn and Mijal Grinberg, Haaretz Correspondents and Agencies

Khaled Meshal, the Damascus-based head of the Hamas political office, insisted Monday on a swap of Palestinian prisoners for captured Israel Defense Forces soldier Gilad Shalit.

"Our people... are united on the insistence to swap the captured soldier with prisoners in the jails of the Zionist enemy," said the exiled Hamas leader during a rare press conference from the Syrian capital.

He said that Shalit is a "prisoner of war and international conventions and laws should be applied to his case." Read more...