By Xinhua
Gaza : Palestinian groups Thursday rejected an Israeli offer to release 200 Palestinians in exchange for captive Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit.
Abu Mujahed, spokesman for the Palestinian Resistance Committees (PRC), one of the groups that hold the Israeli soldier in Gaza, made the remarks in response to earlier reports that Israel has offered to free 200 of some 11,000 Palestinian prisoners as part of Shalit’s swap.
Abu Mujahed told media that “the Israeli occupation was not serious in negotiating” over the captive soldier and the captors will keep holding the soldier.”
Shalit was seized by three Palestinian militant groups, led by Hamas movement, in a cross-border raid in June 2006.
Mujahed said that the talks on prisoners’ exchange were suspended five months ago when Hamas took control of the Gaza Strip by force.
Negotiations prior to that had focused on freeing 1,000 Palestinians in addition to patients, women, children and old prisoners, but the talks were blocked because Israel did not approve the first list of prisoners’ names submitted by the captors, Mujahed said.