Jewish extremists also should be freed: minister

The Israeli Trade Minister Eli Yishai called on Tuesday for jailed Jewish extremists to be released as the Israeli government considers swapping prisoners with Hamas.

"Many in Israel ask why the state shouldn't also release Jewish prisoners sentenced for acts they committed as a result of the security situation," Yishai said.

"I turn to you to work towards the release of these prisoners in the spirit of balance so that a large part of the country may realize that goodwill gestures are made in both camps," Trade Minister Eli Yishai said in a letter to Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.

About 20 Jewish extremists are currently serving prison sentences. Yishai is a member of the security cabinet which is scheduled to meet on Wednesday to discuss the case of Shalit, who was captured by Gaza militants in a cross-border raid in June 2006.

Swapping prisoners

Yishai’s call followed reports of a possible deal to exchange the captured Israel soldier Gilad Shalit for Palestinians held in Israel. But the deal is being held up over demands that some of the Palestinians be exiled, Hamas officials were quoted as saying on Monday.

The disagreement between Hamas and Israel over prisoners’ swap centers on four Palestinian prisoners whom Israeli courts convicted of attacks against Israeli civilians or of heading a "terrorist organization," the state-owned Egyptian daily Al-Ahram reported.

The four include Ahmed Saadat, leader of the leftist Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), who was sentenced to 30 years by an Israeli military court in December "because of his position and activities within the terrorist movement."

Israel had accused him of ordering the 2001 killing in Arab east Jerusalem of far-right tourism minister Rehavam Zeevi but prosecutors did not in the end press that charge.

The PFLP claimed Zeevi's killing as a response to an Israeli air strike that killed Saadat's predecessor as leader, Abu Ali Mustapha, and the Israeli court convicted four other PFLP militants of the assassination.

Hamas members

The other three prisoners that Israel wants exiled are all members of Hamas, Al-Ahram said.

Abdullah Barghouti was sentenced to 67 consecutive life terms for organizing suicide bombings in Israel that killed 66 Israelis, and Abbas al-Sayyed sentenced to 35 life terms.

Ibrahim Hamed was convicted of leading the operations of Hamas's military wing, the Ezzedine Al-Qassam Brigades, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and of carrying out attacks on Jewish settlements.

Hamas officials have said they were on the verge of agreeing a truce with Israel but that demands for the release of Shalit, captured in a cross-border raid from Gaza more than two years ago, had set back the agreement.

A shaky calm in Gaza has been tested by Palestinian rocket attacks and Israeli air strikes after both sides declared ceasefires on Jan. 18, ending the 22-day war in Gaza which killed 1,330 Palestinians and 13 Israelis.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has said that Shalit must be released before Israel agrees a long-term truce and on Sunday he consulted with key cabinet members to draw up the government's position on a truce.

Israeli set to consider swap

Olmert will re-convene his security cabinet on Wednesday to consider a prisoner swap with Hamas that could lead to a truce in the Gaza Strip, officials said on Monday.

Olmert is mounting a last-ditch effort to free captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit before leaving office.

He has refused to accept an Egyptian-proposed ceasefire that would open the Gaza Strip's border crossings until the enclave's Islamist rulers release Shalit in exchange for Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.

Hamas warned on Monday that Olmert's brinkmanship over Shalit put broader ceasefire talks in jeopardy.

"If they want him back at home as they say, they have to let the Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli prisons go home too, " Senior Hamas official Moussa Abu Marzouk told the media.

Hamas official Taher al-Nono said "a clear agreement" on a ceasefire had been reached until Olmert, over the weekend, insisted on Shalit being freed first.

If they want him back at home as they say, they have to let the Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli prisons go home too

Moussa Abu Marzouk

Leverage

Israel believes last month's military offensive in the Gaza Strip increased its leverage over Hamas, increasing the chances of a breakthrough on Shalit, who was captured in a cross-border raid by Gaza militants in 2006.

The air, sea and land bombardment, which Israel launched with the declared aim of halting rocket attacks, killed more than 1,300 Palestinians, destroyed some 5,000 homes and decimated much of Gaza's infrastructure, local officials said.

If Gazans want to rebuild, they will need Israel and Egypt to open border crossings. Olmert has ruled out doing so until Shalit has been freed.

Hamas has demanded the release of 1,400 Palestinian prisoners in exchange for Shalit. Israel has repeatedly recovered both captured hostages and remains of slain soldiers from its conscript army through massively lopsided swaps.