Khaled Mashal, the exiled supreme leader of Hamas, today delivered an uncompromising message that there will be no let up in the Gaza crisis unless Israel frees Palestinian prisoners.

Mr Mashal, who is believed to be in close contact with the Palestinian militants engaged in a violent stand-off with Israeli forces, said that the Israeli soldier held hostage by militants will not be freed without large-scale prisoner releases.

He added that the Israelis were "under an illusion" if they thought that by escalating their offensive they would win the soldier’s release.

Mr Mashal spoke in conditions of strict security in a hotel in Damascus. The Syrian capital has been his home since Israel threatened to kill him, he escaped a Mossad assassination bid in Amman in 1997. Journalists were taken by buses from a meeting point to the hotel.

It was Mr Mashal's first public appearance since the Gaza crisis erupted, after Hamas militants captured Corporal Gilad Shalit in a cross-border raid into Israeli territory on June 25.

"They talk about one soldier, we have 10,000 detainees ... this is why we are seeking a prisoner exchange," he told a news conference.

"The Palestinian people are united on insisting the that the [Israeli] prisoner soldier be traded for [Palestinian] prisoners in Israeli jails. We say to the world that we as a true people and movement do not forget our prisoners."

Mr Mashal said that Hamas was "proud" of the operation that led to the soldier’s capture, which triggered an Israeli offensive on Gaza that has so far left 44 Palestinians and one Israeli dead.

The Hamas leader said that the 19-year-old corporal would be kept alive. "Our values require us to protect his life," he said.

The soldier was "taken as a prisoner in a clean military operation which targeted Israeli military servicemen and not civilians so the laws of prisoners of war are applicable."

Recent reports have suggested that Mr Mashal has blocked mediation efforts to secure the soldier’s release. Today, however, he blamed Israel for the collapse of Egyptian, Qatari and European mediation efforts to solve the crisis over the captured Israeli soldier.

"These efforts hit snags over Israel’s insistence on the release of the Israeli soldier and its refusal to release Palestinian prisoners," he said.

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