Word: ismail
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...bargaining tools to win Shalit's release. But with one-third of the Hamas-led Cabinet in jail and much of the rest of it hiding from the threat of assassination by Israeli air strikes, the moves effectively rendered the Hamas government impotent--a reality Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniya acknowledged in a public appearance in Gaza City last Friday. "They aim to topple the government," he said...
Mashaal, 50, a charismatic ex--physics professor, has remained a thorn in Israel's side. Because Israel has barred Hamas' elected leaders, including Prime Minister Ismail Haniya, from traveling outside the occupied territories, Mashaal, from his exile in Damascus, has been the militant movement's most effective spokesman and fund raiser. Owing to his lobbying, Iran has pledged $100 million in aid to the Hamas-led government, crippled by a five-month economic blockade imposed by Israel and others in the international community. In the past, Israel showed little hesitation in hitting Hamas militants inside Syria with air strikes...
...have 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...
...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...