JERUSALEM—Barely a month after the end of a bloody confrontation with Israel in Gaza, which was touched off by the kidnapping of three Israeli youths, Hamas officials this week called for further abductions in order to leverage prisoner exchanges with Israel.
The officials said they were seeking to repeat the successful abduction of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit in 2006, which led five years later to the release by Israel of 1,027 prisoners.
"We strive for an abduction operation that would make a second Shalit possible," said Hamas spokesman Mushir al-Masri in an interview with Palestinian media. "Over 1,000 of our Palestinian brothers who were incarcerated in the Zionist occupation’s prisons were released as part of that deal. Only through similar operations can we hope to facilitate the release of more prisoners."
His sentiment received backing from the senior Hamas political figure in Gaza, Ismail Haniya, although in a somewhat less pointed manner. "The Hamas leadership is debating ways to secure the release of prisoners from the Israeli occupation’s prisons," he said. "We would welcome any action that would bring about the prisoners release. They symbolize the just Palestinian struggle."
A spokesman for Hamas’ military wing warned Israel that hostilities will resume. "The Zionist occupation has failed to destroy the Palestinian resistance. Our reaction will be blood for blood, destruction for destruction."
It is highly questionable if Hamas will seek a renewal of hostilities, with much of Gaza in ruins and tens of thousands of residents homeless as a result of the war. The Hamas leadership has agreed to cede control of Gaza’s border crossing points into Israel and Egypt to its longtime political rival, the Palestinian Authority headed by President Mahmoud Abbas. After the Shalit kidnapping, Israeli forces made several incursions into Gaza in which scores of militants were killed but the missing soldier was not found.
The Palestinians have for many years sought to kidnap soldiers in order to win the release of their own prisoners held by Israel. Except for Shalit, the few soldiers they succeeded in kidnapping have been killed.
The Palestinians in those cases were trying to exchange bodies for living prisoners.
The kidnapping of the three Israeli students in June was an operation gone wrong, Hamas operatives admitted. The object had been to kidnap one hitchhiker, on the assumption that all Israeli males do army service. One of the victims was indeed 19, although not in the army. Instead of picking up one Israeli, the two kidnappers took all three waiting at a bus stop. The other two were 16 years old. Within minutes, all three were shot dead. Shortly afterwards they were buried in a previously prepared gravesite.
The subsequent arrest by Israel of Hamas operatives in the West Bank, brought rocketing from Hamas and other militants in the Gaza Strip. When Israel retaliated after several days, the exchange escalated into a ground war in which some 2,200 Palestinians and 70 Israelis died.