Militants give ultimatum

Palestinians threaten to kill Israeli soldier if prisoners not freed; deadline passes with no sign from either side

BY MATTHEW MCALLESTER | Newsday Staff Correspondent

July 4, 2006

GAZA CITY, Gaza - The deadline set by Palestinian kidnappers who had threatened to kill Israeli Cpl. Gilad Shalit expired yesterday with no word from either side.

A statement issued yesterday by the three militant groups who captured Shalit, 19, on June 24 implied that if Israel did not meet their demands in freeing 1,500 Palestinian prisoners that the soldier would be killed by 11 p.m. The militants said "we will consider the soldier's case to be closed" unless the prisoners are released on time.

Whatever Shalit's fate, the Palestinian tactic of kidnapping Israelis promises to continue.

In interviews in the West Bank and Gaza, Palestinian militant leaders told Newsday that kidnapping Israelis was now a central part of their strategy: In the West Bank, they would focus on seizing hitchhikers; in Gaza they would dig more tunnels under Israeli lines, they said.

Abu Haytham, a leader of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades in the Khan Younis refugee camp in Gaza, said Shalit would likely be killed. Haytham's group is not one of the three claiming responsibility for the kidnapping.

"This is the only solution," he said, crouching under an olive tree to avoid detection from the Israeli spy drones overhead. "The enemy does not want to negotiate. We cannot just give him for nothing. So the only thing is to kill the soldier. And they will not get the body back until they have released our prisoners."

So would Shalit be dead by this time tomorrow, he was asked.

"God willing," he said.

With the clock ticking, Israeli intelligence and military officials were quoted in the Israeli press as saying they had no idea where Shalit was. That may be disinformation designed to lull the kidnappers into a false sense of security pending a commando raid on wherever Shalit is being held, as Israel has tried in similar situations in the past.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's office insisted there would be no negotiations for Shalit's release, although the army chief of staff, Lt. Gen. Dan Halutz, did not rule out a deal.

"We, and by that I mean the political and military echelons, will consider all that there is to be considered, then reach conclusions and act on them," he told reporters.

Egyptian intelligence officials have been acting as mediators between Olmert's office and Hamas leaders, specifically Damascus-based Khaled Meshaal.

However the crisis over Shalit plays out, the Palestinian militants seem set on their kidnapping strategy. On Sunday, a group of seven factions in Gaza issued a statement saying they had all set up units whose mission is to kidnap Israeli soldiers in the event that the Israeli army launches an offensive into Gaza.

"We have a group trained especially for kidnapping soldiers," Abu Haytham confirmed, as a dozen of his masked fighters spread out among the camouflage of the trees in a sandy olive grove. He said plans for increasing kidnappings have been in the works for months and that the militant factions have been trained in digging tunnels and have identified weaknesses in the Israeli military. "The whole system has changed to exploit those weak points," he said, declining to identify the weaknesses. "The next part of the war is going to be the tunnel war."

In the West Bank, where Israelis and Palestinians are much more intermingled geographically, the kidnapping of Israelis is easier, said another Al-Aqsa leader in the Al-Amari refugee camp in the main town of Ramallah.

"In Gaza, the chances for kidnappings are limited," explained 37-year-old Abu Rida, a nom de guerre used by the local faction's commander. "There is more of an opportunity here in the West Bank. The border is open and it's easier to penetrate...Our fighters have been told this will be our new strategy, more effective than suicide bombs."

Security sources say the Israeli military has stepped up patrols of hitchhiking spots and the government has announced it will finance more public buses.

One group of rabbis issued a religious decree last week. "In light of the great danger...it is forbidden to take a ride with an unknown driver," read the decree from the Tzohar Rabbis Organization. "Whoever takes such a ride is sinning."

Special correspondent Sonia Verma contributed to this story.

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Palestinians threaten to kill Israeli soldier if prisoners not freed; deadline passes with no sign from either side

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