| That'd be a change from just attacking anything that moves... |
 Israel has not ruled out the possibility of releasing Palestinian prisoners in exchange for kidnapped IDF soldier Gilad Shalit, Hamas legislator Salah al-Bardaweel said on Sunday. But Bardaweel's comments stand in stark contrast to the unequivocal comments made Sunday in the weekly cabinet meeting by Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Chief of General Staff Lt.-Gen Dan Halutz, and head of Military Intelligence Maj.-Gen. Amos Yadlin, who all said that Israel would not release prisoners for Shalit because this would only encourage more and more kidnapping attempts.
| Painful as it may be, that's the sensible course... |
Meanwhile, Hamas's armed wing, Izaddin al-Kassam, on Sunday threatened to attack infrastructure facilities inside Israel, including schools, hospitals and universities. The threat, the first of its kind since Hamas won the parliamentary election last January, was issued in response to continued Israeli military strikes in the Gaza Strip. "If they continue with these attacks, we will strike at targets in Zionist territory that we have not struck until now," said the organization's spokesman.
The latest threat came as Egypt continued its efforts to resolve the crisis. It also came as sources in the Gaza Strip revealed that the Palestinian Authority's security forces had, for the first time, begun searching for Shalit in Rafah and Khan Yunis. The sources said that members of the Preventative Security Service and the General Intelligence Force had secretly deployed hundreds of their men in the streets to try to track down the whereabouts of the solider. They added that some of the security officers had been disguised as Fatah and Hamas militiamen. Yadlin, however, told the government that the Palestinian Authority security services are doing nothing to look for Shalit.
| The PA might have to look for him, but I doubt greatly that Hamas does. |
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