JERUSALEM: Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said yesterday Israel would not agree to any truce with the Hamas movement without the release of an Israeli soldier seized by Palestinian militants in 2006.
"The position of the prime minister is that Israel won't reach any arrangement on a truce before the release of Gilad Shalit," Olmert's office said. Egypt has been struggling to mediate a truce between the two sides since a massive three-week war in Gaza was halted by separate ceasefires on January 18 that have since been strained by tit-for-tat exchanges of fire.
One of the conditions demanded by Hamas is that all the crossings into the enclave be opened, bringing an end to the Israeli blockade imposed when the group seized Gaza in 2007. Hamas has demanded that the release of Shalit be negotiated as part of a separate prisoner exchange plan.