The father of an Israeli soldier held hostage in the Gaza Strip came out against the Palestinian ransom terms.
Noam Shalit, whose son Gilad was abducted by Gaza gunmen June 25, on Thursday appeared to endorse Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s decision to reject the Hamas demand that Israel free 1,400 Palestinian prisoners — including those “with blood on their hands” — in exchange for the soldier.
“Unfortunately, Hamas is unwilling to display flexibility and to end this crisis, but is posing impossible conditions,” Yediot Achronot quoted Shalit as saying in a meeting with the Norwegian ambassador to Israel, Jakken Bjorn Lian. “Even though Israel is willing to release hundreds of prisoners for my son, Hamas demands the release of murderers sentenced by courts to life imprisonment for the murder of hundreds of innocent Israelis.”
Shalit has criticized the Israeli government for its failure to recover his son, as well as two Israeli soldiers held by Hezbollah.
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