The leader of Hamas claimed today that an Israeli soldier kidnapped nearly two years ago is still alive.

Khaled Meshaal, who is exiled in Syria, used a television interview from an undisclosed location to renew demands for a deal over the prisoner, Gilad Shalit, whose capture was a prelude to Israel's disastrous summer war with Lebanon.

As part of any agreement, the Islamist group wants some of its highest profile prisoners released from detention in Israel. Analysts say however that the main motive for the Hamas leader's statement is an attempt to keep public focus on the Islamists, who fear being sidelined as the international community tries to reinvigorate peace talks between Israel and Hamas' main rival, the secular Fatah, which runs the West Bank.

In a statement which will infuriate Israeli leaders, Mr Meshaal also told Sky News that the number of Jews killed by the Nazi Holocaust had been exaggerated.

Referring to the detention of Mr Shalit, who has been held since summer 2006, Mr Meshaal said: “Gilad is still alive and we are treating him in a good way, while the Israelis treat our prisoners badly and everyone knows that."

The Hamas leader, who survived an assassination attempt by Israel in 1997, added that Mr Shalit would only be released if all the group's demands were met. Israel, however, has refused to comply with the Islamists' demands in the past, claiming that many of the 450 prisoners which Hamas has demanded are released have "blood on their hands".

Mr Meshaal made no mention of another two Israeli soldiers, Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev, who were captured a month after Mr Shalit by Hezbollah militants in a cross-border raid in northern Israel.

Also in the interview, Mr Meshaal made an offer to Israel only to strike military and not civilian targets in exchange for reciprocation by the Jewish State. The promises will be greeted with scepticism by Israel, however, as crude, homemade Qassam rockets fired from Hamas-run Gaza are impossible to control precisely.

“We renew our offer to Israel to let the civilians on both sides not be a part of this conflict,” he said, adding that if Israel agreed not to kill Palestinian civilians, Hamas would only attack Israeli military targets. “We renew this offer today,” he said, claiming he had made a similar gesture 10 years ago.

On the Holocaust, Mr Meshaal claimed that the Nazi genocide in World War Two, in which six million Jews were among 11 million murdered, had been exaggerated.

"We don't deny the Holocaust, but we believe the Holocaust was exaggerated by the Zionist movement to whip people," he said.

Hamas has run the Gaza Strip since forcing Fatah forces loyal to President Mahmoud Abbas out of the territory in summer last year, creating a split between the Palestinian territories. Hamas takes a more extreme political line, refusing to renounce terrorism or to recognise Israel's right to exist.

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