Hamas: Shalit in good condition, not in danger of being harmed

Abducted Israel Defense Forces soldier Gilad Shalit is in good condition and is not in danger of being harmed, a spokesman for Hamas' armed wing said on Thursday.

"I can say with certainty that Gilad Shalit is safe and we have no intention of hurting him, because we know that his release will bring about the release of many Palestinian prisoners," Iz a-Din al-Qassam spokesman Abu Obeida said in an interview with the Nazareth-based A-Shams radio.

Abu Obeida said Hamas has chosen the route of negotiations over a prisoner swap deal in exchange for Shalit and would not give up that track.

"We know to differentiate between Israeli aggression and the contacts being held over the swap," he said, but added, "at this stage, we are in favor of freezing contacts because it is impossible to continue to hold contacts as long as Israel continues its agression."

"We will wait for a more appropriate environment to renew the contacts," Abu Obeida said.

Meanwhile, Noam Shalit, father of the abducted soldier, said Thursday that he sent a letter of condolence to the territory's Hamas strongman after his son was killed in an Israel Air Force raid earlier this week.

"It was a personal letter of condolences," Shalit told The Associated Press on Thursday. He said he did not appeal to Mahmoud Zahar to help free his 21-year-old son, but declined to disclose the text of the letter.

Zahar's 24-year-old son Hussam, a Hamas militant, was one of 19 Palestinians killed Tuesday in an IAF operation against Gaza rocket squads.

A senior Hamas official warned Thursday that the ongoing IDF raids on the Gaza Strip could turn negotiations over the release of abducted soldier Gilad Shalit into "a Ron Arad affair."

The warning was in reference to the Israel Air Force navigator who has been missing in action since his plane went down over Lebanon in 1986.

In an interview aired on Channel 1, Hamas official Ismail El-Muzeini, who is overseeing the Shalit matter for the group, said that if the raids continued, Hamas would cut off all contacts with Israel over the release of Shalit, who the group has been holding captive since 2006.

Earlier Wednesday, Hamas' exiled leader Khaled Meshal that IDF raids on Gaza would hurt chances of the Palestinian militant group releasing Shalit.

Meshal told reporters that recent IDF operations in the coastal strip also made Hamas less likely to negotiate any truce with Israel.

Speaking to Israeli leaders, Meshal said: "What you are doing will deny you of any plan you could be betting on: No exchange for Gilad Shalit and no truce."

	Abducted IDF soldier Gilad Shalit (AP)