Hamas leader says Israel must swap prisoners

DAMASCUS, July 10 (Reuters) Hamas leader-in-exile Khaled Meshaal today said Israel must release Palestinian prisoners in exchange for a captured Israeli soldier.

Israeli leaders have threatened to kill Meshaal, who was speaking at a rare news conference in Damascus.

''Our people... are united on the insistence to swap the captured soldier with prisoners in the jails of the Zionist enemy,'' Meshaal said.

''We have told mediators and those who made political efforts (to end the crisis) that we support the peaceful, calm handling of this matter but you need to understand the needs of the Palestinian people,'' he added.

''The solution is simple: swap. But Israel rejects this. The mediators in Europe know this, but they are incapable. Israel thinks it will bring the soldier back by (military) escalation, but it is disillusioned.'' Meshaal blasted the international community for focusing on the Israeli soldier, rather than on forcing Israel to halt assaults on the Gaza Strip that he said had killed 47 Palestinians and wounded 187.

Israel has said it will not negotiate with the governing Hamas movement for the release of the soldier, taken to Gaza after a cross-border raid into Israel on June 25.

Militant groups that seized the 19-year-old tank gunner have demanded Israel free more than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners.

REUTERS KD PC1655