Monday 23 March 2009

Palestinian leaders urge Shalit's captors not to yield to Israeli pressures


Source

[ 23/03/2009 - 11:02 AM ]


GAZA, (PIC)-- A number of Palestinian officials and leaders, during a popular meeting held Sunday in Gaza, called on the Palestinian resistance factions that captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit not to succumb to Israel's blackmails and pressures regarding the prisoner swap deal.

In a solidarity tent, minister of prisoners' affairs Faraj Al-Ghoul urged the captors of Shalit not to yield to the Israeli pressures topped by kidnapping Hamas leaders in the West Bank and maltreating Palestinian prisoners and to hang on to its demands for the release of prisoners.

Ghoul underlined that the Israeli occupation authority understands only the language of capturing soldiers in order to release Palestinian prisoners, pointing out that all Palestinian mothers cry for their sons and daughters in Israeli jails just as Shalit's mother cries for her son.

For his part, MP Mushir Al-Masri, the secretary-general of the Hamas parliamentary bloc, stated that the IOA exhausted all its options to get Shalit released for free and only one option was left before it, that is, to release all Palestinian prisoners demanded by the Palestinian resistance.

MP Masri described all attempts to pressure the Palestinian resistance to release Shalit as desperate, and make the resistance more adherent to its demands, warning that any delay or foot-dragging on the swap deal might prompt the captors of Shalit to raise the ceiling of their demands or close the file.

For his part, Islamic Jihad leader Khader Habib said that the freedom is the right of the Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails because they are not terrorists as the IOA claims, but the terrorists are those who kill women and children, and destroy homes.

Secretary-general of Al-Ahrar Movement Khaled Abu Hilal called on the Palestinian resistance to capture more Israeli soldiers if Shalit was not enough to move forward the swap deal.

In another context, MP Yahya Moussa, a member of the Hamas parliamentary bloc, said Sunday, in a press statement to the official Al-Rai newspaper, that the PLC still assumes its duties normally and continue to follow up the government performance and the citizens' complaints, and to receive visiting delegations despite the destruction that befell its headquarters.

MP Moussa pointed out that the PLC lawmakers worked, during the Israeli war, on providing services to the Gaza citizens and monitor the performance of the Palestinian government, stressing that the PLC overcame all the Israeli actions that aimed at impeding its work through destroying its buildings and kidnapping its MPs.

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