OCCUPIED JERUSALEM (PIC)– The Hamas Movement stated that the Israeli government is fully responsible for the failure of the prisoner swap deal as it was responsible for the truce failure in the presence of the Egyptian mediator.
In a press release received by the PIC Hamas said that Israel uses racist speech when trying to impose its standards for releasing Palestinian prisoners through claiming that it has the right to retain a number of them and release some others according to its racist mood.
Hamas highlighted that Israel’s threats of escalating its siege and pressures on Gaza would not intimidate the Movement or force it to give up one name in the list of prisoners.
For his part Osama Al-Muzaini a senior Hamas leader underlined Tuesday in a press statement that his Movement has fixed demands regarding the prisoner swap deal and did not change them adding that Israel is the party which backtracked on its positions.
Muzaini explained that Hamas set its demands from the outset which are the release of 1000 Palestinian prisoners in two batches where the first group includes 450 prisoners and the second 550 without deporting any of them from the Palestinian lands.
The Hamas leader said that Israel invents excuses and reasons to continue its siege on Gaza expressing his belief that even if soldier Gilad Shalit was released Israel would resort to other excuses in order to escalate its restrictions on Gaza.
In the same context Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum strongly denounced the Israeli government for not being serious about ending the file of Shalit stressing that the Israeli government employed this file more than once as a means to blackmail and pressure Hamas.
Barhoum underscored that Olmert came under pressure from Israeli citizens and thus he tried to switch the blame on Hamas to cover up for his failure in addressing the file of Shalit.
In an exclusive statement to the PIC MP Mushir Al-Masri the head of the Hamas parliamentary bloc stated that all options are open for achieving the goal of releasing all Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails pointing out that the experience proved that peaceful options and negotiations are useless and will not release long-serving prisoners.
MP Masri added that the option of capturing Israeli soldiers is the only way to get all Palestinian prisoners released from Israeli jails.
The lawmaker warned that any foot-dragging on the release of Shalit would close the door of negotiations with Hamas on this file highlighting that Shalit would never see daylight unless Israel fulfilled the Palestinian resistance’s demands.
In the same context the Hebrew radio reported that outgoing Israeli premier Ehud Olmert met with Shalit parents and informed them that the swap deal reached a deadlock but told them that the talks in this regard would continue until the release of their son.
The Hebrew radio also said that the Israeli cabinet decided Tuesday during a special session to tighten Israel’s pressures on Hamas including the imposition of restrictions on Palestinian families’ visits to their imprisoned sons and daughters in Israeli jails.
