The Israeli government has formalized its stance to condition any easing of the blockade of the entire Gaza Strip on the release a single captured Israeli soldier. On Wednesday, Interior Minister Meir Sheetrit said Israel would only consider lifting the humanitarian siege of Gaza if Hamas secures Corporal Gilad Shalit’s release.

Israeli Interior Minister Meir Sheetrit: “The security cabinet decided unanimously that Gilad Shalit will be the first demand of Israel before any arrangement with the Egyptian or with Hamas. We would like to see Gilad back home. Three years have been past, and we think that we cannot come to any arrangement with the Hamas or with the Egyptian without solving the problem of Gilad Shalit. We want him back home.”

Shalit was seized in June 2006 from an Israeli military post used to stage attacks on Gaza. Israel has previously negotiated several prisoner exchanges. Some 10,000 Palestinians are currently jailed in Israeli prisons. Hamas spokesperson Fawzi Barhoum called the Israeli position a non-starter and said Hamas remains open to a prisoner swap.

Fawzi Barhoum: “We will not accept linking the file of Shalit with the file of the ceasefire. If the Zionist occupier wanted a ceasefire with a breaking of the siege, the opening of the crossings and stopping of the aggression, then we are ready for that. If they wanted something other than that, then we are open to all possibilities. We don’t oppose releasing Gilad Shalit, but only with the necessity of the responsiveness of the Zionist occupation to comply with our conditions and demands to release our prisoners and the prisoners of the Palestinian people, in accordance with the list and the general theme that the Zionist occupier already knows.”