Israel has rejected an ultimatum from Palestinian militants understood to be holding an Israeli soldier hostage to free Palestinian prisoners.
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Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert rejected the ultimatum and his defence chief said Israel would "know how to reach everyone responsible" if Corporal Gilad Shalit was harmed.
The Palestinian militants gave Israel less than 24 hours to meet their demands to release Palestinian prisoners, threatening unspecified consequences if it refused.
"If the enemy does not agree to our humanitarian demands ... we will regard this case as closed," said "Military Communique 3", issued by the armed wing of the governing Hamas movement and two other factions.
"We give the Zionist enemy until 6am (3am GMT) tomorrow, Tuesday, the fourth of July," the statement said.
In previous communiques, the groups called on Israel, as a first stage, to release some 400 Palestinian women and youths in its prisons in return for information about Corporal Shalit, abducted in a June 25th raid launched from Gaza.
The groups - Hamas' Izz el-Deen al-Qassam Brigades, the Popular Resistance Committees and the previously unknown Islamic Army - subsequently demanded Israel free 1,000 Palestinian prisoners.
Unless the demands were met, the factions said, "the enemy will bear full responsibility for future consequences".
The statement accused Israel, mounting an offensive in Gaza, of bad faith in an Egyptian mediation effort to end the crisis.
"The government of Israel will not yield to the extortion of the Palestinian Authority and the Hamas government, which are led by murderous terrorist organisations," Mr Olmert's office said in a statement.
"We will not conduct any negotiations on a prisoner release," it said. "The Palestinian Authority bears full responsibility for the well-being of Gilad Shalit and his return, safe and sound, to Israel."
Hamas sources said Western diplomats, whom they did not name, had told the group that Israel had prepared a 13-man hit list headed by exiled leader Khaled Meshaal and including Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh and Foreign Minister Mahmoud al-Zahar.
Western countries, which have cut off aid to the Hamas-led Palestinian government, have urged militants to release the soldier and called on Israel to show restraint in its military actions in Gaza.