Defense officials dismiss claims that Shalit was hurt in Gaza during Operation Cast Lead

Israeli defense officials say claims that kidnapped soldier Gilad Shalit was wounded in Israel's assault on the Gaza Strip are not credible.

One source said the claims were psychological warfare designed to increase pressure in Israel for concessions during a prisoner exchange with Hamas.

The London-based Al Hayat reported yesterday that Gilad Shalit had been wounded during Operation Cast Lead.

It quoted a spokesman for the Popular Resistance Committees.

Meanwhile, Hamas official Mahmoud Zahar was quoted in Al Hayat as saying that some Palestinian prisoners freed in a deal for Shalit may be settled in Syria.

Israeli defense officials have suggested this as an alternative to returning the prisoners to the West Bank or the Gaza Strip.

In yet another media statement, this time in an interview with the Guardian, Deputy Hamas politburo chief Moussa Abu Marzouk flatly rejected Israel's demand that Shalit be released in return for lifting the blockade on Gaza, however he did signal that fresh information about Shalit might be provided if Israel moved Palestinian prisoners being held in solitary confinement to normal cells.

Abu Marzouk also conditioned this information on the release of unhealthy female prisoners and information on Hamas gunmen Imad and Adel Abdullah, whom the Islamist group claims have been abducted by Israeli forces.

New setbacks

The Egyptian-brokered negotiations between Hamas and Israel for Gilad Shalit's release hit a setback last week after Prime Minister Ehud Olmert conditioned the opening of the crossings to Gaza upon the abducted soldier's release, changing the position Israel had presented at talks with Cairo until that point.

With the crossings closed, Palestinians are using a system of tunnels to smuggle basic products and weapons into the Gaza Strip from Egypt.

A Gaza health official yesterday said a tunnel collapse had killed a smuggler, and sent five others to the hospital due to a lack of oxygen before being rescued.

The opening of the crossings may also depend on the ability of Fatah and Hamas to work out a power-sharing agreement in the Gaza Strip - a prospect Egypt has been promoting since Hamas' violent takeover there in June 2007.

Cairo officials said yesterday that another round in these talks would be held Wednesday in the Egyptian capital.

In the meantime, Egyptian security officials said yesterday that the authorities have dispatched hundreds of policemen to the border with the Gaza Strip, fearing Palestinian protesters might try to breach it into Sinai.

In an apparently unrelated incident, two Hamas activists were killed yesterday morning near the border of the Gaza Strip with Israel in an explosion whose cause has not been determined.