Hamas says arrests complicate soldier kidnap crisis
A Hamas official close to the Islamic movement’s exiled leader today described Israel’s detention of dozens of Palestinian Cabinet ministers and MPs belonging to the group as an act of hostage-taking that complicated efforts to trade a captured Israeli soldier for Arab prisoners.
But Osama Hamdan, Hamas’ Lebanon representative, would not comment on how Hamas would respond if Israel proposed exchanging Palestinian politicians in Israeli army custody for Israeli Corporal Gilad Shalit whom Palestinian militants are holding.
