Last update - 00:00 19/01/2007
PRC warns it will carry out more abductions of Israelis
By Shlomo Shamir, Haaretz Correspondent, and News Agencies
A Palestinian militant group involved in abducting Israel Defense Forces soldier Gilad Shalit said on Friday it will try to seize more soldiers and settlers to secure the return of the bodies of Palestinians it says Israel is holding.
The announcement came a day after Secretary General Ban Ki-moon told Dan Gillerman, Israel's ambassador to the United Nations, on Thursday that he would do everything in his power to ensure that the three Israeli soldiers abducted this summer, including Shalit, are released.
Spokesman Awni Zannoun said in a statement on Friday that "The Popular Resistance Committees (PRC) warns the Zionist enemy it will use all means of capturing soldiers and settlers alive and will keep the remains of their dead until (Israel) releases the bodies of our holy martyrs."
The PRC said it had information that the bodies of at least 144 Palestinians killed in decades of conflict were buried in four cemeteries in Israel and the occupied West Bank. Israel's army had no immediate comment on the PRC statement.
The PRC was one of three militant groups that seized Shalit in June last year in a raid into southern Israel from the Gaza Strip.
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has said Israel would be prepared to free detained Palestinians if Shalit is returned.
Another Palestinian militant group, Islamic Jihad, threatened on Friday to resume suicide bombings in Israel in retaliation for continued Israeli army operations in the West Bank.
"The enemy should await the right response in the right place we choose. All its security measures will fail," said Abu Hamza spokesman of the Jerusalem Brigades of the Islamic Jihad.
"...The Jerusalem Brigades will strike at the appropriate time and place," he added in statement.
Gillerman reiterates demand for sign of life
Responding to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's promise to ensure the safe return of abducted Israeli soldiers, Israel's ambassador to the United Nations Dan Gillerman reiterated Israel's demand for a sign of life from the soldiers.
Corporal Gilad Shalit was abducted by Palestinian militants near Gaza on June 25 and reservists Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev were kidnapped by Hezbollah on July 12, sparking this summer's war in Lebanon.
Hamas held a protest outside the International Red Cross office in Gaza City on Thursday to demand the release of Palestinian prisoners. Hamas has demanded that Israel release more than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners in exchange for Shalit.
Ban told Gillerman that he plans to visit the region soon and that he has fond memories of a visit to Israel several years ago, as South Korea's foreign minister.
A senior Israeli diplomat described the meeting as friendly, saying the pair developed a "personal chemistry."
Gillerman told Ban that former secretary general Kofi Annan's view that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict feeds other international conflicts is mistaken, and called for action to halt Iran's nuclear program.
"The UN needs to deal more with the Iranian threat," Gillerman said. Ban replied that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's Holocaust denials and statements regarding Israel's destruction are unacceptable.
Ban also pledged to act against arms smuggling from Syria and Lebanon, saying he would "spare no effort to implement Resolution 1701." He also said he planned to participate in a Quartet meeting in Washington on February 2.