Subscribe to Print Edition | Wed., September 12, 2007 Elul 29, 5767 | | Israel Time: 03:02 (EST+7)
Haaretz israel news English
web haaretz.com
  Back to Homepage
Print Edition
Diplomacy
Defense Arts & Leisure Real Estate Jewish World National Advertising
Magazine Week's End Business Opinion Rosner's Domain Anglo File Books Travel
del.icio.us
Digg It!  new
Last update - 16:44 10/09/2007
Dichter calls captured Hamas chief 'bargaining chip' for Shalit
By Haaretz Service

Public Security Minister Avi Dichter, partially lifting an official veil of secrecy over the Friday night capture of senior Hamas commander Mahawesh al-Qadi, said Monday that the Hamas Executive Force officer is a bargaining chip in the effort to free abducted IDF Corporal Gilad Shalit.

The IDF and Israeli officials have refused to comment on Palestinian accounts of the kidnapping, in which undercover Israeli soldiers, dressed in the uniform used by the Executive Force, reportedly lured Qadi out of his car by having one of their members pose as an old man needing help at the side of a rural road.

The soldiers, waiting in a Subaru in a grove on the outskirts of Rafah, then allegedly bundled him into the car and drove to the nearby Dahaniya airfield from which witnesses said he was flown by IAF helicopter to an unknown destination.

Advertisement
Qadi is also a senior operative in Hamas' military wing. He is believed to have been closely involved in the June 2006 kidnapping of Shalit during a Hamas-led attack on an IDF post within Israel and adjacent to the Gaza Strip.

Without mentioning Qadi by name, Dichter confirmed in an interview with Army Radio that the government viewed him as a bargaining chip in negotiations for Shalit's freedom.

He cited the cases of Sheikh Abd al Karim Obeid and Mustafa Dirani, Lebanese militant commanders abducted by Israel and later freed in an exchange for the bodies of three IDF serviceman and a kidnapped Israeli businessman. Dichter called Obeid and Dirani "very important bargaining chips in bringing our boys home - to my sorrow, the bodies of our boys."

Dichter said that while the intelligence that Israel could gain from Qadi was mainly relevant to the period up to the point of his capture, "there are additional elements that are always current."

"Every method, every technique used to gain additional intelligence, is welcome and very important to the effort to bring Gilad Shalit home. Second, the ability to obtain additional 'assets' - with concrete relevance to the release of Gilad Shalit, is an enormous advantage," he said.

According to Dichter, in the end "we will free Gilad Shalit through negotiations, at the end of which terrorists will be released to the Palestinian Authority or to Hamas in Gaza, and we will receive Gilad Shalit in return."
Bookmark to del.icio.us
Purring with humanity
A non-profit organization has set up a shelter housing some 700 cats in Latrun.
Bicycling Tel Aviv
Tel Aviv will soon join the list of cities that offer bicycle rentals at a nominal cost.
  1.   It won`t happen,Israeli Supreme Court will release him 14:52  |  Absolute 10/09/07
  2.   Goodnapping 14:54  |  jjvanka 10/09/07
  3.   I don`t believe it 15:13  |  Great News 10/09/07
  4.   Kidnap?? 15:14  |  Avi 10/09/07
  5.   So much.... 15:27  |  Simon Jenkins 10/09/07
  6.   The Hamas man was "captured", Shalit was "kidnapped" 15:32  |  Clickfool 10/09/07
  7.   The captured HAMAS-MAMBER should be treated as a criminal. 15:37  |  Vittorio 10/09/07
  8.   Perhaps it is time to capture more of those Hamas chiefs so that 16:11  |  Robert 10/09/07
  9.   ...good...Munich movie II...next Spielberg twisting the facts 16:19  |  The Dumbite Kid 10/09/07
  10.   #1, clickfool 16:29  |  Cipora Julianna Kohn 10/09/07
  11.   #1 the England`s finest Moronic Muslim 16:29  |  Clickf00l 10/09/07
  12.   IDF capture 16:31  |  Chaim Gorenstein 10/09/07
  13.   IDF Capture 2 16:32  |  Chaim Gorenstein 10/09/07
  14.   #6 ClickJerk 16:39  |  * BEN JABO 10/09/07
  15.   to Ben Jabo no 14 16:51  |  Tina 10/09/07
  16.   Guess Qadi will now have a wakeup call 16:53  |  Kipperraes 10/09/07
  17.   no, mahawesh al-qadi needs to wait in jail like a good martyr 17:03  |  matt 10/09/07
  18.   Easy Conclusion 17:17  |  Honest Observation 10/09/07
  19.   Dichter calls ........ 17:23  |  Elias Hazineh 10/09/07
  20.   cipora 10 17:29  |  realism 10/09/07
  21.   seizing "bargaining chips" skirts legality 17:31  |  Paul Freedman 10/09/07
  22.   To Hamas and Hezbollah Leaders 17:49  |  Yoram 10/09/07
  23.   Israel is running out of ideas... just take the trade.. 17:53  |  Natallie Durson 10/09/07
  24.   Nothing is going to come out of this except adding to the 11,000 18:19  |  lakshmi 10/09/07
  25.   To Clicky 18:31  |  dovale 10/09/07
  26.   Well done 18:52  |  KUTW 10/09/07
  27.   3. Great News: I don`t believe it 19:00  |  KUTW 10/09/07
  28.   6. Clickfool : The Hamas man was captured, Shalit was kidnapped 19:02  |  KUTW 10/09/07
  29.   hamas is a terror group 19:11  |  vik 10/09/07
  30.   jj get your facts straight 19:17  |  Margie in Tel Aviv 10/09/07
  31.   Kidnapping 19:29  |  Moses 10/09/07
  32.   Jabo #14 19:34  |  jjvanka 10/09/07
  33.   How is Israel different from Hamas? 19:34  |  Danny 10/09/07
  34.   violence begets violence 19:43  |  Caleb 10/09/07
  35.   Ditcher responds... 19:46  |  Eli 10/09/07
  36.   cipora 10 20:35  |  realism 10/09/07
  37.   to Clickfool#6 20:41  |  Ilya 10/09/07
  38.   Israeli Murderer Treated Better than Tortured Innocent Hamas Man 20:48  |  Kevin 10/09/07
  39.   Captured Terrorist 20:53  |  Boris 10/09/07
  40.   Cant Go Home to Hamistan 20:56  |  Robert 10/09/07
  41.   Missing in Mississauga 21:02  |  The Realists 10/09/07
  42.   Realist..you`ve been asleep for decades 21:25  |  Tim 10/09/07
  43.   HOSTAGE 21:29  |  Moshe 10/09/07
  44.   Avi-- what Geneva Convention would that be? 21:29  |  Angela 10/09/07
  45.   So which is worse? 22:09  |  Jim 10/09/07
  46.   bargaining chips 22:17  |  rose 10/09/07
  47.   # 1 Absolute 22:20  |  Jim 10/09/07
  48.   24 / Right - Israel is behaving like ordinary criminals kidhappin 22:25  |  Kevin 10/09/07
  49.   realist # 21you forgot,throwing palestinian citizens from roof 23:01  |  terrornator 10/09/07
  50.   What Geneva Convention? 23:07  |  Bill Foonman 10/09/07
  51.   moshe # 23,israel has finally learned that they need to treat you 23:08  |  terrornator 10/09/07
  52.   Keith 23:15  |  Jasmine Murphy 10/09/07
  53.   Jim 23:17  |  Jasmine Murphy 10/09/07
  54.   ignorant Jim 23:18  |  Jasmine Murphy 10/09/07
  55.   Haaretz Censor 23:45  |  Honest Observation 10/09/07
  56.   bargining chip? 23:55  |  Saba 10/09/07
  57.   Jim from Tennesse,Israelis let Dirani go with no info on Arad 00:20  |  Absolute Sweden 11/09/07
  58.   #30 Stop salivating Kevin! 00:24  |  Murray of Montreal 11/09/07
  59.   Mahawesh al-Qadi on Holidays 00:37  |  NowhereMan 11/09/07
  60.   Kevin #30 Are you a hippocrite? 00:39  |  Clarence Darrow 11/09/07
  61.   #42 Kevin 01:31  |  * BEN JABO 11/09/07
  62.   59/hypothetical hypocrit 02:30  |  Kevin 11/09/07
  63.   #60, Clarence Darrow... 03:27  |  Silvienne 11/09/07
  64.   #62 Kevin; Are you a hippocrite? 04:22  |  Clarence Darrow 11/09/07
  65.   #63 Silvienne 04:42  |  Clarence Darrow 11/09/07
  66.   #65, Clarence Darrow 06:08  |  Silvienne 11/09/07
  67.   30/Margie get your facts straight B4 U straighten others facts 09:43  |  Kevin 11/09/07
  68.   tim 49 17:56  |  realism 11/09/07
  69.   i don`t believe it 20:28  |  sherry gilman 11/09/07
  70.   Muslim Smuslim 20:30  |  Nowhereman 11/09/07
  71.   sherry gilman 02:56  |  * BEN JABO 12/09/07
 Today Online
IDF officers say Zikkim training base is adequately fortified
Responses: 757
CNN: Israel is 'happy with success' of strike on Syria
Responses: 410
Amos Harel: No major IDF response to Qassam strike due to tensions in north
Responses: 100
Yishai: Shas will quit gov't if Temple Mount is relinquished
Responses: 90
Haaretz.com TV: Victims of terror go hungry for holiday
Responses: 15
Rosner's Domain
* The next year: Nuclear crunch time
* WTR: The Nazi roots of the 9/11 attack
* Rosner's Guest: Judaism will not end... Judaism as we know it will
* Israel and Syria: Smoke on the horizon


More Headlines
23:10 CNN: Israeli gov't 'very happy with success' of IAF strike on Syria
23:46 IDF officers say Zikkim training base is adequately fortified
02:32 IDF ground operation in Gaza unlikely despite Zikkim attack
22:47 Thousands more survivors to receive stipend from Germany
22:40 PMO denies existence of draft Agreement of Principles with PA
19:13 Peace Now asks High Court to order immediate eviction of Hebron squatters
22:41 Livni: Hamas could have prevented Qassam attack on IDF base
21:26