By Saud Abu Ramadan

It has been exactly three years since the 22-year-old Israeli corporal Gilad Shalit was abducted in a triple armed attack led by Hamas on an Israeli army base just outside southeast Gaza Strip, while finalizing a prisoners' swap deal with Israel to free him is still marking time.

The Islamic Hamas movement on Thursday said it cannot confirm or deny if the captive Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit is still alive.

Right after Shalit's abduction, Hamas and the two other captors, the Popular Resistance Committee (PRC) and the Army of Islam, immediately presented their demands to Israel through Egyptian mediators, to free Shalit for releasing 1,450 Palestinian prisoners from Israeli prisons.

Since then until now, Egypt has been trying to bridge the gaps between the two sides in a bid to finalize a prisoners' exchange deal that makes both sides satisfied. However, Israel and Hamas are still tenacious for their positions and traded accusations that it seems they are not interested in closing this file.

Abu Mujahid, the 25-year-old PRC spokesman in Gaza said "Shalit won't be released before the Israeli occupation yields to the resistance demands."

"The third anniversary of abducting Shalit symbolizes a meaningful message addressed to the Zionist enemy that Israel failed to break the resistance willpower, and the only choice is to response to the Palestinian Resistance demands," he told Xinhua.

Israel's military and political activities  

Following Shalit's abduction, Israel carried out a military assault on Gaza, destroyed the main Gaza power plant, and imposed a tight blockade on the Gaza Strip.

Since Shalit was abducted, the Hamas-run ministry of health in Gaza said that 2,000 Palestinians were killed.

Moreover, the Israeli army forces carried out a furious war on the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip for 22 days that ended on Jan. 18. According to Hamas official figures, 1,450 people were killed, 5, 000 others wounded, in addition to destroying thousands of houses, Gaza infrastructure as well as security establishments.

Hawkish Israeli premier Benjamin Netanyahu had instructed two days ago to all his political and military establishments to do their utmost to bring Shalit alive back to his family. Israeli media reported earlier that Israel is determined to resume the indirect talks with Hamas soon.

Al-Muzini told Xinhua on telephone that "for three years, Israel has been attempting all war means, incursions, a crazy offensive against Gaza Strip and high intelligence activities. All these attempts failed to reveal Shalit existence place."

What does Hamas want? 

Al-Muzini continued saying that Israel has to go ahead with talks to exchange Shalit for a number of Palestinian prisoners "if the soldier was dead or alive," adding "the Zionist enemy has to pursue negotiations without any signal confirming or denying this argument."

"We tell Israel to save efforts and time, if it is concerned to this issue. Israel should respond to Palestinian resistance conditions," he said, adding "One of the suggested conditions is to release 1,450 Palestinian prisoners including children and women as well as lawmakers and ministers."

Al-Muzini expected that Israel will show flexibility as Hamas had given the maximum level of being flexible. "It's all in Israelis' hands now. However, if Israel maintains procrastination, then Shalit issue would stay as it is," he added.

Egyptian efforts going on

Minister of interior affairs in Hamas-administrated government Fathi Hammad, and other senior Hamas military and political leaders have been in Cairo for two weeks, holding talks with Egyptian intelligence officials, apparently to finalize the prisoners exchange deal with Israel.

Two days ago, Palestinian local media quoted senior Egyptian security sources as saying that the deal is almost done, and expected that Shalit will be freed within the coming few days. The report was completely denied by both Israel and Egypt.

The report said that there had been significant movements and contacts recently between Israel and Egypt while Hamas leaders are in Cairo. It said that earlier this week, Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak visited Cairo, where his visit was followed by a visit of a senior Egypt security delegation to Tel Aviv.

Talal Oukal, a Palestinian political analyst and an academic at al-Azhar University in Gaza told Xinhua that "the general current atmosphere seems to be so close to turn the page of Shalit due to the international efforts especially the U.S. and Arabs' efforts towards finalizing the swap deal."

"Apparently, the release of Hamas leader and speaker of the parliament Aziz al-Dweik two days ago is a positive indication to end the issue of the prisoners, including the release of Shalit very soon," said Oukal.

Hamas has said al-Dweik's release has nothing to do with Shalit.

(Xinhua News Agency June 26, 2009)