CAIRO: A top-level Hamas delegation landed in Cairo on Tuesday amid renewed speculation that the group was poised to engage in fresh indirect talks with Israel over the release of captive soldier Gilad Shalit.
"A top-level Hamas delegation headed by Khaled Meshaal just arrived in Cairo," the Hamas information website said, referring to the movement’s Damascus-based leader.
Earlier, Palestinian sources close to Hamas told AFP Meshaal was due to arrive in Cairo along with the deputy head of the Islamist group’s politburo, Moussa Abu Marzuk.
But they refused to confirm a report in the London-based Al-Hayat newspaper that the delegation was in town for talks over Shalit.
Egyptian foreign ministry officials also refused to comment on speculation about a fresh round of talks over a prisoner exchange deal to secure the release of Shalit, who was snatched by Gaza-based militants in 2006.
They told AFP they could not comment on the issue due to its "sensitivity."
But speaking to Tel Aviv-based 103 FM radio, Israeli Defense Minister confirmed there was "a grain of truth" to reports that new talks would take place in Cairo to secure a deal releasing Palestinian prisoners in exchange for Shalit.
Separately, Osama Hamdan, Hamas’s top representative in Lebanon, said there was some "softening" in the Israeli position without confirming that fresh talks were under way.
There has been "nothing new so far, so we cannot say we are close to sealing a deal," he said in a telephone interview with Falesteen Online, a Hamas-affiliated news website.
"The Israeli position is clearly softening in the face of Hamas’s consistency on its positions and demands," he said.
Shalit was 19 when he was captured on June 25, 2006 by three armed groups, including Hamas, and is still being held at a secret location in Gaza.
So far, he has not been permitted visits by the Red Cross, and talks between Israel and Hamas over a prisoner exchange which would see the freeing of hundreds of Palestinians detainees in exchange for Shalit’s release, have led nowhere.
