GAZA, July 4 (UPI) -- Escalation of Mideast violence is projected despite calls by the Palestinian government to use diplomacy to settle the case of a kidnapped Israeli soldier.
Speaking at the end of the regular weekly cabinet meeting in Gaza Tuesday, Prime Minister of the Hamas-led government Ismail Haniyeh said "We should not close the door on negotiations and must resort to the language of reason and wisdom to end this issue which is a humanitarian issue in addition to being a political one."
Haniyeh welcomed Egyptian mediation efforts between Palestinians and Israel to settle the case of the soldier who was kidnapped by three Palestinian factions, including Hamas, during an attack on a crossing between Gaza and Israel.
Israel retaliated by launching operation "Summer Rains" in Gaza and rounding up Hamas legislators and ministers in the West Bank and Jerusalem.
Hamas warned Israel against attempting to assassinate Haniyeh or any member of its government, stressing it would be "playing with fire."
"Any attempt of assassination will be equal to turning tables upside down and engaging in an adventure whose consequences cannot be calculated... Israel and its supporters will not be able to bear its results or contain its consequences," a Hamas statement said.
In Israel, a foreign ministry spokesman threatened that Israel will destroy completely "the infrastructure of Palestinian terrorism" in case it failed to liberate the soldier who was kidnapped 10 days ago.
"The Israeli stance regarding the abducted soldier has not changed and that is no negotiations and no bargaining with the terrorists," the spokesman said, stressing, "either they release the soldier voluntarily or we will start a large-scale operation to destroy the infrastructure of the terrorists."
In addition to Hamas, the Popular Resistance Committees and the Islamic Army claimed responsibility for the kidnapping of Gilad Shalit in the operation in which two other Israeli soldiers were killed.
