CAIRO: A German mediator is to give Israel s response to Hamas on a prisoner swap as the two sides edge closer to a deal, a Palestinian official said on Monday.
The official, who requested anonymity because of the sensitivity of the talks, said Hamas leaders would meet the mediator in the Gaza Strip where he would relay Israel s response to the Islamist movement s latest proposal.
The official, who is close to the talks, said the dispute centered on 70 prisoners whom Israel refused to free. Hamas drafted its final position during a meeting in Damascus last week, with the results passed on to Israel, he said.
Israel will free about 1,000 prisoners, included 450 militants chosen by Hamas, in exchange for captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit.
The two sides were narrowing their differences.
But Hamas is insisting on six prisoners whom Israel has turned down, the official said, including Marwan Barghuti, a populist leader with its rival Fatah faction, and Ahmed Saadat, whose group assassinated an Israeli minister.
Hamas also insists on the release of its senior members Abdullah Barghuti, who is serving 67 consecutive life terms over suicide bombings in Israel, and Ibrahim Hamed, who is accused of ordering attacks in Israel, and two others.
A further dispute, the official said, was over Israel s demand that some of the prisoners it releases be exiled. Hamas agreed to the exile of some of them, but not all of them, he said.
Both sides reported progress in the talks last week but have since downplayed reports of an imminent deal after negotiations hit a snag over the group that Israel refuses to free.
The indirect talks, with Egypt also a key mediator, have dragged on since Palestinians including Hamas members, captured Shalit in a cross-border raid from Gaza in 2006.
Israeli media quoted court documents on Sunday as saying Israel would free 980 Palestinian prisoners, including 450 chosen by Hamas, in exchange for Shalit.
The government informed the Supreme Court of the possible releases after an Israeli group appealed to the court, demanding that Israel provide the names of Palestinians to be freed, the reports said.
Israel s cabinet is expected to ratify the deal before the swap takes place.
Shalit is to be handed over to Egypt before Israel frees the first group of prisoners, and then returned to Israel, after which the rest of the Palestinians would be freed.
The Jewish state released 20 women prisoners last month after Hamas handed over a videotape of Shalit showing him in good health. -AFP
