The Muslim fundamentalist kidnappers of an Israeli border policeman said Monday they were still willing to return the hostage if Israel releases their jailed spiritual leader, state-run Israel Radio reported.
The message, delivered to a Western news agency in Amman and broadcast on Radio Monte Carlo, was the first word from the kidnappers since they threatened to kill Border Police Master Sgt. Nissim Toledano, 29, Sunday.The Islamic Resistance Movement, Hamas, announced the abduction Sunday mor-ning and set a deadline of 9 p.m. (2 p.m. EST) the same day for the release of their leader. Otherwise, the group said Toledano would be killed.
Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin's office, however, issued a statement earlier saying Israel would not negotiate unless it received "a sign of life" from Toledano.
According to the radio report, the Hamas spokesman in Jordan's capital, Mohammed Nazal, referred to an interview with the imprisoned Hamas leader Sheik Ahmed Yassin that Israel Television aired Sunday night.
Nazal said Hamas was heeding Yassin's appeal to negotiate with the Israelis and not to kill Toledano. Nazal also asserted the kidnapping was a "legal act," part of Hamas' war against Israel's occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
Israel, meanwhile, sealed off the West Bank and the army brought in Bedouin trackers to help the thousands of soldiers and police scouring the country to find Toledano.
Searchers were concentrating on the area around Lod in central Israel, where Toledano was abducted Monday morning.
Toledano's kidnappers left a letter at an office of the International Red Cross in the West Bank town of el-Bireh threatening to kill him unless Israel released Yassin.