Al Qassam Brigades: “Prisoner swap will only be conducted by our terms”

Sunday August 10, 2008 02:06 by Saed Bannoura - IMEMC & Agencies

The Al Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, stated on Saturday that its demands for a prisoner swap deal are nonnegotiable, and added that no matter what Israel tries, the captured soldier, Gilad Shalit, will never be freed without the implementations of its demands.

Abu Obaida, media spokesperson of the Al Qassam brigades, stated in an interview with the Quds Press that if Israel continues to delay its responses, then the file of Shalit will be closed and he will never be released.

Shalit was captured two years ago by the Al Qassam Brigades, the Salah Ed Deen Brigades, and the Arm of Islam. Two Israeli soldiers and two resistance fighters were killed in the cross-border attack carried by the fighters in an Israeli military base.

The Al Qassam Brigades said that Israel should release 10000 Palestinian detainees, and that more than half of the released detainees should be detainees who are sentenced to high terms and those who spent many years in Israeli prisons.

He added that the Brigades will not allow the occupation to set the names of the detainees who will be freed.

“We do not believe in the ‘good intentions of Israel’, the occupation violates all laws and regulations, it still occupies our people and holy sites”, Abu Obaida added, “We have no illusions, we have our fixed demands”.

Responding to a question regarding Israel’s rejection to release Marwan Barghouthi of Fateh, and Ahmad Sa’adat, the secretary-general of the leftist Popular Front For the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), Abu Obaida said that the resistance will not rush into a prisoner-swap deal, as the occupation still rejects to release several resistance leaders.

“But, we want to tell our people that if the occupation does not accept our demands, there will be no swap deal”, he added, “Now the occupation have to decide”.

gaza strip | prisoners | news report saed at imemc dot org