The armed wing of the Hamas movement threatened Tuesday to kill an Israeli soldier captive for the past 10 months, if Israel attacked the Gaza Strip to end rocket fire from the area at its southern towns.

A new attack launched on Gaza by the Israeli forces would endanger the life of Corporal Gilad Shalit said Abu Obeida, a spokesman for the Qassam Brigades, Hamas' military wing.

"Such an operation will cost Israel heavily," he told reporters in Gaza, criticizing calls by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to stop the rocket attacks.

Shalit was captured by Hamas in a June 25 raid on an Israeli army outpost bordering the Gaza Strip with the intent to exchange him for Palestinian militants jailed in Israel. His captors can keep him hostage for months and years if necessary, he said.

Talks mediated by Egyptians negotiators towards an exchange deal between Israel and the militants are progressing slowly.