The three Palestinian groups that captured an Israeli soldier last Sunday gave Israel until Tuesday morning to start freeing Palestinian prisoners or "bear all the consequences."
The ultimatum, which was faxed to news agencies on Monday, did not say what those consequences would be.
"We give the Zionist enemy until 6:00 tomorrow morning, Tuesday, July 4," the fax said. "If the enemy does not respond to our humanitarian demands mentioned in previous leaflets on the conditions for dealing with the issue of the missing solder ... we will consider the current file of the soldier to be closed ... and then the enemy must bear all the consequences of the future results."
The fax was posted on the official Hamas military wing's Web site.
The captors initially demanded the release of about 500 women and children prisoners held in Israeli jails. They later raised their demands to include an additional 1,000 prisoners.
So far, Israel has publicly said it would not negotiate prisoners release, but privately, political and defense leaders have not ruled out releasing prisoners who weren't involved in actual attacks on Israel, the AP reported.
After the issue of the ultimatum, the Israeli government said it would not cave in to extortion. "There will be no negotiations to release prisoners," the prime minister's office said in a statement that held the Palestinians' ruling Hamas party responsible for the soldier's safe return.
There has been no sign of life from the soldier since his seizure, and no concrete evidence of his condition, though Israeli officials have said they think he is alive.
The London-based newspaper Al Hayat reported Monday that an Egyptian security team had visited the Israeli soldier in Gaza and said he was being treated by a Palestinian doctor for "three bullet wounds."
In their ultimatum, the factions accused Israel of not "learning lessons" from the cases of other captured soldiers.
