Hamas called Monday upon all Palestinian militant groups to form a joint committee to plan ways to kidnap Israeli soldiers who could then be exchanged for Palestinians held in Israeli jails DPA reported
All militias should join this "factional resistance committee," said Ahmed Bahar, a senior leader of the Islamist group currently administering the Gaza Strip.
He told reporters, at a news briefing to launch activities expressing solidarity with prisoners in Israeli jails, that kidnapping soldiers would "oblige the occupation (Israel) to release our prisoners."
Bahar also called on security officials in the Palestinian Authority-run West Bank to stop releasing Israel soldiers and civilians who lose their way and stray into Palestinian areas by mistake. The West Bank sends them back to Israel.
Israel currently holds more than 4,200 Palestinian prisoners in its jails, most of them incarcerated for "security offences" such as attacking Israel or plotting to do so.
In October and December last year, Israel released a total of 1,027 prisoners from its jails in exchange for soldier Gilad Shalit, who had been snatched in a Hamas-led cross-border raid in June 2006 and held in Gaza as a bargaining chip.