By Patrick Anidjar
Jerusalem - Israel threatened on Monday to topple the Hamas-led Palestinian government unless a soldier seized in a militant raid was released alive as a rival armed group claimed to be holding the conscript.
The 20-year-old soldier, who also holds French nationality, was snatched in a brazen attack on an army post on the Gaza Strip border at dawn on Sunday in which two other Israeli servicemen and two Palestinian militants were killed.
Israel has massed troops on the border in preparation for any retaliatory operations after Sunday's assault, the deadliest in the area since Israel pulled out of the Gaza Strip last summer.
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| 'He is alive and in good health' |
The Popular Resistance Committees, which together with the armed wing of Hamas and the previously unheard of Army of Islam, claimed the attack, said in a telephone interview that it was holding the soldier.
"He is alive and in good health," said the representative of the group, speaking on condition of anonymity. "He is not seriously injured."
He gave no indications as to the whereabouts of the missing soldier, whose bloodstained flak jacket was found near the scene of the attack, according to the Israeli army.
Israel warned it would work to topple the Hamas-led government - boycotted financially and politically by the West since taking office in March - unless the missing soldier Gilad Shalit is released alive.
"We will make sure that the Hamas government ceases to operate if the kidnapped soldier is not returned to us alive," a high-ranking security official said on condition of anonymity.
| Huge pressure on Abbas to resolve the crisis |
Yuval Diskin, the head of Israel's Shin Beth domestic security agency, made the threat to Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas on Sunday, the source said.
Israel, which refuses to have any dealings with the terror-blacklisted Hamas, is exerting huge pressure on Abbas to resolve the crisis, blaming both the moderate president and the Hamas-led government for the attack.
Hamas's armed wing was among three militant groups which claimed Sunday's assault was to avenge the deaths of 22 Palestinian civilians killed in one alleged Israeli shelling and a series of botched air strikes.
Nasseredine al-Shaer, deputy Hamas prime minister, has demanded the immediate release of the soldier and Abbas also condemned Sunday's attack.
Faced with the largest assault in the volatile border area since Israel withdrew all troops and settlers from Gaza last September following a 38-year occupation, ministers have vowed to avenge any harm done to the soldier.
"We left the Gaza Strip. We are no longer there. There is no reason for us to be attacked from this region and therefore we will respond with all our strength," Justice Minister Haim Ramon told army radio.
Outside the Kerem Shalom gate that separates Israel from Gaza, the army was busy amassing tanks, ground troops and artillery, waiting for the green light from political leaders for any possible attack, a security source said.
Although Israel's security cabinet decided on Sunday to put off any major reprisals in Gaza for the killing of two soldiers until Shalit is recovered, it said it would take "all necessary actions" to secure the hostage's release.
"This objective has top priority and, to this end, the cabinet approves all the preparations that were presented to it by the security establishment," it said, vowing that "no person or organisation will have immunity at this time".
An Egyptian security delegation which rushed to the Gaza Strip has established contact with the abductors through a third party, Israeli radio said.
Ghazi Hamad, spokesperson for the Hamas-led government, confirmed to Israeli army radio that a number of parties, including the Egyptians, were working to resolve the standoff.
France also said it was in contact "with all the concerned parties to find a solution to this situation."
An editorial in Maariv newspaper said that regardless of whether Shalit was returned alive, it was "impossible to overestimate the severity of yesterday's incident".
"Hamas's audacity, the killing and the kidnapping are the final and absolute proof that the organization ruling the Palestinian Authority is adhering to the path of war against us. The tahdiya (truce) is dead.
"Any any further escalation, if one should take place, would be immersed in a great deal of blood that would be spilled on both sides." - Sapa-AFP
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