CAIRO: An Israeli negotiator was due in Egypt on Thursday in a bid to speed up indirect negotiations with the Hamas movement for the release of an Israeli soldier as part of a prisoner swap.
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert s envoy Ofer Dekel was due to hold talks with Egyptian intelligence chief Omar Suleiman, an Israeli government official said.
According to the pan-Arab daily Al-Hayat, quoting trusted Egyptian sources, Corporal Gilad Shalit would be handed over to Egypt before heading home after two years in captivity.
The prisoner exchange deal would see the release of 150 Palestinian prisoners in exchange for the release of Shalit who will be handed over to Egypt, where he will stay for a week and see his family, a source said.
He would then go to Israel and once there, another 300 Palestinian prisoners would be released. Two months later 550 prisoners would be released, mainly women and children, the source said.
Israel has objected to many names put forward by Hamas because they have Jewish blood on their hands, the source said.
Egypt has given Israel a list of 1,000 names, but [Israel] has reservations about 75 percent of them.
Israel is willing to consider their release on condition they leave the Palestinian territories to guarantee that they will not carry out any operations against Israel, the source said, adding that Egypt had objected to this condition.
Israel is eager to maintain this series of steps but there is disagreement over the names.
Suleiman had already played a key role in mediating a truce that went into effect on June 19 in and around the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip.
Army radio said Dekel would seek to ensure Egypt does not open the Rafah crossing with Gaza until militants there release Shalit, who was seized in a bloody cross-border operation by Hamas and other Palestinian militants two years ago.
Rafah, the only Gaza crossing that bypasses Israel, has been closed since 2006, although Egypt has allowed some medical cases in.
Israel has allowed only a trickle of goods to pass through the other crossings as part of a blockade it imposes on Gaza.
On Wednesday – the second anniversary of Shalit s capture – Hamas insisted once again that Shalit s release was not related to the truce agreement and that he would only be freed in exchange for jailed Palestinians.
Under the terms of the prisoner exchange a certain number of Palestinian prisoners will be released in exchange for the captive Zionist soldier, said Abu Obeida, a spokesman for Hamas s armed wing. -AFP
