No deal on prisoner swap says Olmert

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said today that freeing Palestinian prisoners in exchange for a captured Israeli soldier would be a “major mistake”.

There could be no negotiations with the “bloody organisation”.

Shortly after Olmert spoke in Jerusalem, Hamas’ exiled political leader, Khaled Mashaal, told reporters in Damascus that the Israeli soldier, Cpl. Gilad Shalit, would not be freed without a prisoner swap.

Olmert’s and Mashaal’s comments signalled a deadlock in the current crisis over Shalit’s June 25 capture, with no end in sight to the Israeli incursion in Gaza that has killed more than 54 Palestinians since it was launched on June 28.

There have been reports that Egyptian and Turkish mediators were close to brokering a deal, but the two sides appeared to still be far apart.

Three militants were killed in two Israeli airstrikes today, and five people, including an eight-year-old girl, were wounded when an Israeli missile targeted a car the army said was filled with explosives.

Despite the Israeli offensive, militants launched three rockets into Israel on Sunday, wounding one person in the Israeli town of Sderot and damaging a house.

Speaking to reporters, Olmert said the violence in Gaza would not deter him from his plan to leave the West Bank – despite indications that Israelis’ support for such a withdrawal has been hurt by the violence that followed Israel’s Gaza pullout last year, including the current stand-off over Shalit.