Shalit Release, Possibly

The cease fire in Gaza was a bust, and the IDF has maintained operations against Palestinian terrorists. However, Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh and President Mahmoud Abbas are still trying to broker some truce, and are negotiating with various Palestinian factions to attempt to obtain the release of kidnapped soldier Gilad Shalit. But the release is probably not imminent, as Abbas had claimed, and may not occur at all. The factions holding Shalit are intractable:

[T]he armed wing of Hamas, Izaddin al-Kassam, which is believed to be holding Shalit together with other groups in the Gaza Strip, denied that it had agreed to release the soldier. The group said it did not know what Abbas was talking about and that Shalit would be released only after Israel meets all the demands of the kidnappers.

We'll see.

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• Lebanon Mire And Muck
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