The armed wing of Hamas blamed Israel on Wednesday for the collapse of prisoner swap talks and warned it could raise its demands in return for freeing a soldier captured almost three years ago. "We put the entire responsibility for blocking a deal on the enemy government," Ezzedine Al-Qassam said in a statement.
"If we have to change our position, it will be to increase our demands and not the other way around," it said, according to AFP.
It said the reported progress on Israeli soldier's case served only an internal Israeli maneuver to calm down the public anger. "This was a political maneuver by the outgoing premier Ehud Olmert to cool down the public protests" in Israel, said a statement issued by Ezz el-Deen al-Qassam Brigades.
