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World Jewish News
Israel: Hamas reneges on Shalit deal
16.03.2009
(JTA) - Hamas reneged on understandings and hardened its position on releasing Gilad Shalit, the Israeli prime minister's office said in a statement.
The statement released late Monday did not say that talks to free Shalit, the solider captured by gunmen affiliated with the terrorist group in a June 2006 cross-border raid, had failed, but seemed to augur it ahead of a formal announcement by Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on Tuesday morning.
It announced the return of two Israeli negotiators from Cairo, where Egypt has been brokering an exchange of Shalit with Hamas prisoners.
It quoted the negotiators, Yuval Diskin, who heads the Shin Beth internal security agency, and Ofer Dekel, Olmert's special envoy as saying that "it became clear during the discussions that Hamas had hardened its position, reneged on understandings that had been formulated over the past year and raised extreme demands despite the generous proposals that had been raised in this round in order to advance and exhaust the negotiations and bring about the soldier's release."
Israel was reportedly ready to release all 400 detainees on the Hamas list, but on the condition they leave the region.
Источник: JTA
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