Israeli army poised to retaliate

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip – Israeli forces began massing along the Gaza Strip border Monday in preparation for a possible invasion as diplomatic efforts foundered to secure the quick release of an Israeli soldier held by Hamas militants.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert warned Palestinian leaders that time was running out for them to win freedom for Cpl. Gilad Shalit, 19.

“Yesterday, I gave an order to military leaders to prepare our troops so they are ready for comprehensive and ongoing military action, in order to strike at the terror organizations, their commanders and anyone involved in terror,” Olmert said. “Let it be clear: We will find them all, wherever they are, and they know it. Let it be clear that no one will be immune.”

Hamas militants who captured Shalit on Sunday in a pre-dawn assault on a military outpost just inside Israel near Gaza’s southern end demanded Monday that Israel release hundreds of Palestinian women and children from Israeli prisons in exchange for information on the soldier’s fate. Israeli leaders rejected the demand, saying they wouldn’t negotiate with the kidnappers.

According to the Israeli Prison Service, there are about 95 Palestinian women and about 300 Palestinians younger than 18 in its facilities.

However the abduction is resolved, it’s no doubt a turning point in the fragile relationship between Israel and the Hamas-led Palestinian government.

Should Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas help negotiate Shalit’s release, it could demonstrate that Abbas, a moderate whom Israel often has criticized for not controlling Hamas militants, has the power to broker a peace deal with Israel.

“If Mr. Abbas does act to bring about a speedy release, that would have a powerful effect in energizing the political process,” said Mark Regev, a spokesman for Israel’s Foreign Ministry.

But if negotiations fail, Israel is likely to launch a massive military operation in Gaza and target members of the Hamas-led government. That could ignite a broader, bloody confrontation between Israel and Palestinian militants.

“We are at the edge of a precipice – and we don’t have to jump off,” Regev said.

Egyptian diplomats negotiated throughout the day as Abbas appealed to leaders across the Middle East to put pressure on Hamas to resolve the crisis.

“The situation is very dangerous,” Abbas political adviser Nabil Aburdeni said. “The invasion of Gaza is possible again.”

While Abbas sought to put pressure on Hamas, Hamas leaders again stopped short of calling for Shalit’s release.

Ghazi Hamad, a spokesman for Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, said the government was working around the clock to resolve the crisis. But he called the attack an understandable reaction to recent Israeli military strikes, which have killed at least 13 innocent Palestinians in Gaza.

“It’s not easy to say to people ‘Be patient’ when daily there are murders and bombings,” he said.

Sunday’s attack marked the first time that Hamas militants had staged such a raid since its political leaders won control of the Palestinian government in landmark January elections.

Until this month, Hamas largely had honored a 16-month cease-fire with Israel. But the Islamist militants ended the truce after eight Palestinian beachgoers were killed June 9 during an Israeli bombardment of the Gaza coast. An Israeli investigation concluded that the Palestinians weren’t killed by the shelling, but that finding is in dispute.

On Sunday, Hamas and commandos from two other militant groups, the newly formed Islamic Army and the Popular Resistance Committees, sneaked into Israel through a 700-yard-long tunnel to strike at the military outpost. They killed two soldiers and captured Shalit. Three of the Palestinians were killed in the raid.

The Popular Resistance Committees said the attack was retaliation for Israel’s assassination of its leader, Jamal Abu Samhadana, earlier this month.

On Monday, Abu Mujahed, a spokesman for the group, said Samhadana had been planning the raid – which the militants dubbed “Fading Illusion” – for weeks, and warned Israel that it would face more attacks if it invades Gaza.

“We are not afraid of the Israeli reaction because, with our simple weapons, we can beat this unbeatable army,” he said.

Palestinians expressed anxiety that the kidnapping would prompt a punishing Israeli invasion.

Sitting under a palm-frond tent at the beach south of Gaza City, Mohammed and Munira Abu Shwareb were divided over the attack.

“This is not the way to ask for our rights,” Munira Abu Shwareb said as she sat next to her husband. “It would be better to negotiate.”

But Mohammed Abu Shwareb compared Gaza to a pot of boiling water in which everyone would be cooked eventually. He said the international community had abandoned the Palestinian people, siding with Israel by politically and financially isolating the Palestinian Authority after voters installed Hamas as its governing party.

“I hate to see people killed, but not after all I have seen. The neglect of the international community, that I am a forgotten person in the whole world. I hope to see Israelis killed,” he said.