GAZA (PIC)– The PA unity government on Wednesday categorically held the Israeli occupation government fully responsible for derailing a deal to swap captured IOF serviceman Gilad Shalit with Palestinian captives in Israeli jails including women and children.
Israeli premier Ehud Olmert’s government raised a number of reservations on names of Palestinian prisoners included in the list that was handed over to it by Shalit’s captors through the Egyptian mediator.
The Israeli reservations are meant to derail the deal and prove that the Israeli occupation government isn’t reciprocating goodwill gestures initiated by the Palestinians affirmed PA information minister Dr. Mustafa Al-Barghouthi.
He added that the Israeli reluctance to positively deal with the agreement unveils grave weakness on the part of the Israeli occupation government deeming it the only party to be blamed for the continued capture of Shalit.
In this regard Barghouthi called on the international community not to pressure the Palestinians over the case adding that the Palestinians have displayed unquestionable willingness to conclude the deal as fast as possible.
The PA minister furthermore stressed that it is about time for the international community to urge Olmert’s government to accept the human conditions tabled by Shalit’s captors to release him including freeing Palestinian children and women captives in Israeli jails among other human-based conditions.
The IOA alleged that the list included names of Palestinians involved in killing Israelis and that their hands are “stained with blood” making it difficult for Olmert’s government to release them.
But Barghouthi shrugged off the Israeli classification of Palestinian prisoners as “ordinary” and “blood-stained hands” affirming that that the IOF troops are “stained with Palestinian blood from head to toe”.
Shalit was captured last June at the hands of Palestinian resistance by three armed wings including the Qassam Brigades of Hamas in a stunning armed attack against an IOF base in Kerem Shalom southeast of Gaza Strip.
At the time of his capture Shalit was inside his tank shelling Palestinian residential areas east of the Strip destroying Palestinian homes and killing and wounding scores of Palestinian civilians.
