Israel and Hamas Plays Wimbledon over Prisoner Exchange?

Israel, Hamas At Odds Over Prisoners
Hamas Leader In Syria Insists On Exchange; Israeli PM Rules It Out


Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert
speaks to foreign reporters, July 10, 2006.
(AP Photo/Oded Balilty)

JERUSALEM, July 10, 2006

(CBS/AP) Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on Monday ruled out negotiations or a prisoner swap with the Hamas-led Palestinian government to win the release of a captured Israeli soldier, calling the Islamic militant group a "terrorist bloody organization."

He also defended his country's two-week-old offensive in the Gaza Strip, said he is "absolutely determined" to carry out his planned West Bank withdrawal, and rejected international criticism.

Speaking to foreign reporters, including CBS News correspondent Robert Berger, Olmert said any other country that had a thousand rockets fired at its sovereign territory would do the same thing.

In other developments:

• Hamas political leader Khaled Mashaal on Monday insisted that Israel must free Palestinian prisoners to win the release of an Israeli soldier captured by Hamas-linked Palestinian militants. Mashaal, who Israel has threatened to kill, spoke in Damascus during his first public appearance since the crisis erupted following the June 25 capture of Cpl. Gilad Shalit.
• Israeli aircraft fired missiles at a car in the village of Abassan in southern Gaza on Monday, killing two Palestinians, hospital officials said. Israel confirmed it launched an air strike, but did not say who was targeted.
• Olmert said Israel is not trying to topple the Palestinian government, though he said Hamas leaders are "directly involved in terror."

Olmert said separation between Israelis and Palestinians is "inevitable," adding the current round of violence in Gaza won't prevent the establishment of a Palestinian state alongside Israel.

Olmert wants to withdraw from most of the West Bank by 2010 to allow the Palestinians to gain independence and to enable Israel to finalize secure borders.

"I haven't changed my basic commitment to the realignment plan," he said, referring to the pullout. "I am absolutely determined to carry out the separation from the Palestinians and establish secure borders."

If peace efforts remain stalled, he said, he will carry out the withdrawal unilaterally, just as Israel carried out a unilateral pullout from the Gaza Strip last year. As a first step, Olmert said he expects to begin uprooting unauthorized outposts in the West Bank in the near future. Continued