ISRAEL: Israeli tanks redeploying near Gaza border with 6 hours left for militants' ultimatum

Record ID: 398017

  • Title: ISRAEL: Israeli tanks redeploying near Gaza border with 6 hours left for militants' ultimatum
  • Date: 4th July 2006
  • Summary: SOLDIERS NEAR JEEP
  • Embargoed: 19th July 2006 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Israel
  • Country: Israel
  • Topics: Defence / Military
  • Reuters ID: LVACZOLBO2L2QPAP2SC2AUJ3ZJJT
  • Story Text: Israeli troops deployed near Gaza border crossed into the north of the territory on Monday night (July 3), six hours before Palestinian militants' ultimatum will expire.
    The militants who abducted an Israeli soldier gave Israel less than 24 hours to meet their demands to release Palestinian prisoners, threatening unspecified consequences if it refused.
    Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert rejected the ultimatum and his defence chief said Israel would "know how to reach everyone responsible" if Corporal Gilad Shalit was harmed.
    In previous communiques, the groups called on Israel, as a first stage, to release 400 Palestinian women and youths in its prisons in return for information about Shalit, abducted in a June 25 raid launched from Gaza.
    The groups -- Hamas' Izz el-Deen al-Qassam Brigades, the Popular Resistance Committees and the previously unknown Islamic Army -- subsequently demanded Israel free 1,000 prisoners.
    Unless the demands were met, the factions said, "the enemy will bear full responsibility for future consequences".
    The groups accused Israel, mounting an offensive in Gaza, of bad faith in an Egyptian mediation effort to end the crisis.
    But Olmert's office said in a statement: "The government of Israel will not yield to the extortion of the Palestinian Authority and the Hamas government, which are led by murderous terrorist organisations."
    Hamas sources said Western diplomats, whom they did not name, had told the group that Israel had prepared a 13-man hit list headed by exiled leader Khaled Meshaal and including Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh and Foreign Minister Mahmoud al-Zahar.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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