Word: haniyeh
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...said repeatedly, the army will pull back. Still, it doesn't look good. Attempts to negotiate Shalit's release, assisted by Egyptian mediators, have been paralyzed by the absence of a clear hierarchy on the other side. Numerous Palestinian leaders, led by President Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, Hamas' political leader, have been working to secure the soldier's release, but the militants holding Shalit apparently do not answer to them. Israeli officials are saying directions are coming from Damascus, from Hamas' leader in exile Khaled Meshal, who is pushing a much harder line than Haniyeh...
...Israel has already made clear that if Corporal Gilad Shalit is killed, it will exact a terrible revenge on the Palestinian political leadership. It may even target Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, who has reportedly reached agreement with President Mahmoud Abbas to seek some form of a two-state solution, in response to international demands that Hamas recognize Israel. But it isn't Haniyeh and the Hamas leaders in government that are behind the kidnapping; Israel believes the perpetrators are hard-liners taking orders from exiled Hamas leaders in Syria, who oppose the reported shift towards moderation and compromise...
...attack also appears to have been aimed at disrupting efforts to find a new consensus between Abbas and the Hamas government over negotiations with Israel. Abbas and Prime Minister Haniyeh are reportedly near agreement on a negotiating position that would imply recognition of Israel inside its 1967 borders. Although Hamas has until now refused to recognize Israel's legitimacy, its political wing is looking to break the international blockade on funding to the Palestinian Authority since it assumed power. A senior Hamas official told Time, "The attack [at Kerem Shalom] must also be understood as an attack on Haniyeh...
...Prime Minister, his cabinet, and senior military officials reportedly mapped out several possible military actions, including air strikes against militant targets, assassinations of Hamas political leaders - up to and including Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh - and the reoccupation of Gaza. While troops and tanks are massed at the edge of territory, however, the plans are on hold while intermediaries, including Palestinian and Egyptian officials, try to negotiate the release of Cpl. Shalit...
What's the stance of the Hamas-run Palestinian government? It's unclear. Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh called the beach attack a "war crime," but did not endorse ending the cease-fire. That suggests at least a modicum of division within Hamas...