Gilad Shalit prisoner exchange deal fails

Wednesday, March 18. Israel has refused conditions Hamas offered under which the captured Israeli soldier, Gilad Shalit, might have been released. Shalit was captured by Hamas in a cross-border raid in June 2006 and has been held in the Gaza Strip ever since. His freedom is believed to be crucial to any peace agreement between Israel and Hamas.

The outgoing Israeli Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert, wants to secure Shalit's release before he leaves office and yesterday Olmert accused Hamas of changing the deal at the last moment so that Israel would be forced to release more than 400 Hamas prisoners in return. "We will not agree to the release of additional prisoners from Hamas's list above and beyond the hundreds that we have already agreed upon and informed Hamas about," said Olmert.

Hamas has denied that it altered the terms of the prisoner exchange and has called on Egypt, which brokered the talks, to blame Israel for the break down in discussions. "It is up to Egypt, which oversaw the negotiations, to publish a clear stance and to expose to the world how the Zionists thwarted the deal," said a spokesman for the Islamic group.

Shalit has now been in captivity for nearly 1,000 days. His family recently set up a tent outside Olmert's house to put pressure on the current Israeli government to step up efforts to free him before Benjamin Netanyahu's more right-wing coalition takes control next month.

FIRST POSTED MARCH 18, 2009