A leader of the Palestinian movement Hamas has condemned an animation released by its military wing about captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, BBC reported.
The three-minute long cartoon, posted on the YouTube website, implies that Staff Sergeant Gilad Shalit could die before being released by Hamas.
But Mahmoud al-Zahar has denounced the cartoon, saying "we have not and will not kill captive Israeli soldiers".
Negotiations to secure the release of Sgt Shalit have stalled since December.
Almost four years ago Sgt Shalit, then a 19-year-old corporal, was captured in a cross-border raid and taken back to the Gaza Strip, where he has been held ever since.
'Efforts succeed'
The film shows an ageing Noam Shalit, walking through the streets clutching a picture of his son and crying as years pass by.
He passes billboards featuring former, current and future leaders of Israel, quoting their promises to secure his son's release. The sound of his son's voice - taken from videos Hamas has made of him in captivity - can be heard in the background.
At the end of the clip a caption says: "Finally the Israeli government efforts succeed. After exchanging prisoners, Noam Shalit finally meets his son Gilad."
Noam Shalit is shown waiting at the Erez border crossing with Gaza, a military vehicle pulls up and reveals a coffin, draped with the Israeli flag.
He shouts out - and it is revealed that the whole sequence has been a dream, there is still time for him to be released, a caption says.
'Morals'
Noam Shalit has branded the clip "psychological warfare".
But while meeting a delegation from the South African government on Tuesday Mr Zahar, a founding member of Hamas, said the film "does not express the official position of the Hamas movement."
"We have not and will not kill captive Israeli soldiers. Our morals and our religion prevent us from doing that."
In December a German mediator shuttled back and forth between the two sides but negotiations foundered.
In return for Sgt Shalit's freedom Hamas has demanded the release of at least 1,000 people held in Israeli jails, some of them convicted of killing Israeli citizens.
In the past Hamas have killed captive Israeli soldiers.
In 1989 militants captured and killed soldiers Ilan Saadon and Avi Sasportas.
Mahmoud al-Mabhouh confessed to their killing, he was assassinated - reportedly by Israel's secret service - in Dubai in January this year.
When the cartoon was first released earlier this week, Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum told the BBC the cartoon was a way of telling Israel that Hamas was not willing to negotiate.
"Gambling with time is an effort to try to blackmail Hamas into lowering its demands and offering concessions," he said. "It's the wrong bet."
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