Israel's security cabinet decided Wednesday that the crossing points into the Gaza Strip will not be fully opened until Hamas releases an Israeli soldier it captured two and a half years ago, dpa reported.
Interior Minister Meir Sheetrit told Israel Radio after the meeting that the cabinet agreed it would be "inconceivable" to accept an Egyptian-brokered truce until Hamas releases Gilad Shalit, an Israeli army corporal captured during a cross-border raid launched from the salient on June 25, 2006.
Hamas, which administers the Gaza Strip, has made the opening of Gaza's borders a key demand in the truce negotations. At present the crossings are open to allow only a limited amount of humanitarian aid to enter the enclave.
"Israel will allow partial activities at the crossings, from its territory into the Gaza Strip" (but) "expanded activity at the crossings will be discussed upon the release of Gilad Shalit," a statement released after the meeting said.
Israel imposed its closure on the Strip after Hamas, which rejects Israel's right to exist, seized control of the salient in June 2007.
A Hamas spokesman described the Israeli security cabinet decision as "a stab in the back to the Egyptian efforts" to mediate a ceasefire.
"Israel will not extort us by these decisions and we stick to our right in defending ourselves; we are not in a hurry for a lull with Israeli standards," Ismail Radwan said.
Spokesmen from the group have repeatedly said they will not tie negotiations on the border crossings to negotations on Shalit.
Instead, Hamas has said it wants Israel to free hundreds of Palestinian prisoners from its jails in exchange for Shalit's release.
The Israeli statement Wednesday noted that "the release of Gilad Shalit will entail the release of Palestinian prisoners, according to a list that will be formulated and approved, as soon as possible, by the duly authorized Israeli officials." Egypt has been trying to broker a truce in Gaza since January 18, when Israel ended a 22-day offensive against militants in the Strip.
Although reports have intimated that a deal is imminent, outgoing Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Tuesday that the negotiations were still incomplete.
He added they should be completed within a "short period," but left open the possibility that they would nonetheless be concluded only after he leaves office.
Israeli President Shimon Peres was set Wednesday evening to begin consultations with party leaders on the formation of a new government, after the Israeli parliamentary elections on February 10.
Once nominated, the appointee has a maximum of 42 days in which to form a new coalition government.