PA officials say Shalit's fate is in the hands of Syria

GAZA - Senior Palestinian Authority officials say the Syrian government holds the key to kidnapped Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit's freedom. They say everyone involved in the affair knows that only the Hamas leadership in Syria can tell the kidnappers what to do with Shalit and approve a deal that would set him free.

The PA officials also say the Hamas leadership in Damascus does not want to cross Syrian government officials and are waiting for orders from them. The officials say the Israeli assumption that senior Hamas officials would hand over Shalit without a green light from Syria is unrealistic. Even if a separate deal is worked out with Hamas, exclusive of any deal with Hezbollah, Syria would still be the main ringleader.

Damascus, acting through Hamas, would in any event demand something in exchange for releasing Shalit, the PA officials say, adding that Egyptian efforts to solve the problem are continuing despite the lack of progress.Meanwhile, a previously unknown Gaza organization calling itself the Holy Jihad Brigades has claimed responsibility for the abduction of two Fox News journalists in Gaza City last week. The group released a statement yesterday demanding the United States release "Muslim prisoners" within 72 hours. Release "Muslims detained in American prisons in exchange for the detainees in our hands," a message released by the organization said.

The abductors did not spell out what they intend to do if the U.S. does not accede to their ultimatum. They also released a video in which their captives, Steve Centanni, 60, and Olaf Wiig, 36, appear to be in good condition. The journalists appealed for assistance in obtaining their release.

"We are alive and well," Centanni said. "We are in fairly good health. So, just want to let you know I am here and alive and give my love to my family and friends and ask you to do anything you can to try to help us get out of here."

The PA Interior Ministry is investigating a number of leads in the case. One possibility is that radical activists from the Hamas military wing, Izz al-Din al-Qassam, are responsible. The Interior Ministry officials believe the kidnappers want the PA to release members of an Izz al-Din cell being held in a PA prison for stealing cars and burglarizing Palestinian homes.

The video made by the kidnappers is similar to those made in Iraq by abductors of foreign nationals there, and contains a similar style of speech.

The spokeswoman of the U.S. Consulate in Jerusalem, Micaela Schweitzer-Bluhm, said in response to the kidnappers' statement that the U.S. government is calling for the immediate release of the journalists and is not willing to make concessions in exchange for their return.

Centanni and Wiig were kidnapped on August 14 while preparing a report for Fox News. Centanni, a reporter, is an American citizen. Wiig, a cameraman, is a New Zealander with Irish citizenship. They were traveling in a car on Omar Al-Mukhtar Street in the center of Gaza City when a green pickup truck blocked their path. They were taken at gunpoint and their Palestinian driver was released.

"There is no discussion about a unity Palestinian government except in the media," PA parliament member Mohammed Dahlan said yesterday. In an interview in Gaza with Haaretz he said neither the Hamas-led government nor the Palestinian factions have made a genuine attempt to pull the Palestinian people out of its crisis. He ripped into Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh for his conditions for creating a unity government.

"How can someone condition the formation of a unity government on Abu Mazen [PA chairman Mahmoud Abbas] and Fatah promising to release the Hamas MPs from Israeli imprisonment and removing the blockade against the Hamas government? A prime minister who sets such conditions proves his lack of interest in creating a unity government," Dahlan said.