Hamas warned it may capture more Israeli soldiers as a last option after an Israeli committee urged pressure on Israeli-held Palestinian inmates. Hamas said Tel Aviv's non-contribution to a prisoner exchange between the two sides may leave the group no choice but to seize more Israeli troopers.
"When they refuse to release Palestinians, it forces the Palestinians to resort to other means to gain their release - and inevitably this includes the capture of more Israeli soldiers," said Hamas' political leader Khalid Mashaal in an interview with the Australian daily The Sydney Morning Herald.
"Israel was supposed to end the siege and open the border crossings in return for a halt to the rockets; the rockets stopped, but the siege remained and the crossings stayed closed," Mashaal added.
"It's unfair to ask Palestinians if they want to die slowly under siege or quickly under fire," he noted.
