The Israeli army said Tuesday that a report by an armed Palestinian group that they had kidnapped an Israeli settler in the West Bank is "false." On Sunday, the Popular Resistance Committees announced that its members had kidnapped a settler. According to some reports, the abduction occurred in the Nablus area.
The Israeli army spokesman said Tuesday that it had checked in all areas in the West Bank and found no reports of missing Israelis, Haaretz reported.
Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on Monday ruled out any negotiations with Hamas over the release of an Israeli soldier captured early Sunday, and declared the Gaza Strip sealed off "by sea and by land."
Palestinian groups said earlier Monday that they would provide information on the soldier kidnapped in the raid in return for certain demands. "This is not a matter of negotiations, this is not a matter of bargaining," Olmert said in a speech to a Jewish Agency gathering in Jerusalem.
"I say here that we will respond to every terrorist, every terrorist organization, in every place they are found," Olmert said. "And you know and they know that we know how to reach them even in remote locations, even if they think they have concealed themselves, believe they are protected, we know how to reach them and hurt the, in order to prevent a continuation of the terrorist acts that they are planning."
