JERUSALEM: Israel issued a sharp warning yesterday to Hamas supremo Khaled Meshaal that he was in their sights over the kidnapping of an Israeli soldier by Palestinian militants three days ago.
Meshaal, one of Israel’s most wanted men who famously survived a bungled assassination attempt by Mossad agents who tried to poison him in 1997, has been accused of at least hindering efforts to free 19-year-old Gilad Shalit who was snatched in a deadly raid on an army outpost on Sunday.
Tzahi Hanegbi, head of Israel’s foreign affairs and defence committee, warned that Meshaal, who lives in exile in Damascus, would be targeted if anything happens to Shalit.
“Meshaal is the supreme commander, leading a hard and fundamental line,” he said. “He got his life back once, but he needs to know that he will join Yassin, Rantissi and all the other murderers if one hair falls off the head of the soldier.”
Hamas’s spiritual leader and co-founder Ahmed Yassin and his successor Abdul Aziz Rantissi were both killed in Israeli air strikes within a month of each other in 2004.
Israeli Deputy Prime Minister Shimon Peres also placed responsibility for Shalit’s fate on Meshaal.
“Khaled Meshaal initiated the whole attack,” Peres said after visiting Shavit’s parents.
The US ambassador to Israel also said that the problem behind the hostage crisis lay in Damascus, where the exiled militant leader is under the de facto protection of the Syrian regime.
“The problem is in Damascus and that’s where I think we should focus the world’s attention,” Richard Jones told reporters in Tel Aviv.
Israel’s liberal Haaretz newspaper quoted mediators involved in trying to secure the release of the abducted soldier as accusing Meshaal of blocking the kidnapped conscript’s freedom.
The mediators said Meshaal, who is believed to have been behind the directive to carry out Sunday’s attack, has yet to express willingness to release Shalit, the daily reported.
Israeli officials also said efforts to secure Shalit’s release were running into difficulties, primarily due to Meshaal’s position, Haaretz reported.
Meshaal, who has made no public statement about the kidnapping, favours military victory over Israel in the Palestinian struggle to throw off four decades of occupation.
After US and EU finding cuts to the Hamas-led government, Meshaal repeated his view that it “is immoral and inhumane to collectively punish a nation which practices democracy. But the Palestinian nation will not give in.”
Meshaal, who was propelled into Hamas’s top seat following the assassination of Yassin and Rantissi, is an imposing figure with salt and pepper hair who wears a closely cropped beard and favours Western-style suits.
He was one of the founding members of Hamas with Yassin in 1987 and became head of the political bureau nine years later.
Born in a village near the West Bank town of Ramallah, his childhood was infused with stories of how his father took part in the resistance against the British mandate in Palestine. – AFP
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