Palestinians want Israeli swapped for prisoners

By Nidal al-Mughrabi

GAZA (Reuters) – Families of Palestinians jailed in Israel
demonstrated in Gaza on Monday to demand that militants holding
an Israeli soldier hostage trade him for the release of their
relatives.

The call could complicate diplomatic efforts to free
Corporal Gilad Shalit, 19, who was seized on Sunday when gunmen
from the ruling Hamas movement and other groups raided an army
post near the southern Gaza Strip.

Israel has ruled out freeing any of the 9,000 Palestinians
in its jails and threatened a major military offensive in
response to the militant attack. Prisoners jailed for fighting
Israel are widely seen as heroes by Palestinians.

“Kidnap one soldier and free 100 prisoners,” chanted
parents, friends and relatives of prisoners at a rally in Gaza.

Mothers smiled as they held up pictures of their sons.

“I call on the fighters … not to let the soldier go. Hold
him by your hands and teeth and free our sons,” said Ghalya
Baroud, whose son Ibrahim, a member of Islamic Jihad’s armed
wing, has spent more than 20 years in an Israeli jail.

PRISONERS’ FAMILIES

The families slammed Palestinian and Egyptian efforts to
free Shalit.

“Where were they when Palestinians were arrested? Where
were they when innocent families were eliminated,” Baroud said.

Hamas and other militant groups have said in the past they
would kidnap Israelis to try to gain the release of comrades
imprisoned in the Jewish state.

No group has claimed responsibility for holding the soldier
nor have any demands been made.

“Kidnapping soldiers is the only way to free our
prisoners,” said Nabil al-Mansi, who was jailed for 11 years as
a member of Hamas’s armed wing and is now on a committee
dedicated to the prisoners.

“It would be a stigma on the forehead of anyone who
releases the soldier … regardless of the price, even it were
the heads of the Hamas leaders themselves,” Mansi said at the
rally.

Hamas, which is sworn to destroy Israel, took over the
Palestinian government in March after winning January
elections.