Aug 30, 2009, 12:40 GMT
Jerusalem - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Hamas poured cold water Sunday on reports of an imminent prisoner swap which would see Palestinian prisoners exchanged for an Israeli soldier held in the Gaza Strip for more than three years
Netanyahu told ministers at the weekly cabinet meeting in Jerusalem that there would be 'no breakthough' on the issue in the coming days, and senior Hamas official Osama el-Muzeini said that while progress toward a deal had been made, it was not enough.
Both were commenting on growing speculation that the exchange deal, which would see Israel release hundreds of Palestinians to secure the return of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, snatched in a cross-border raid from the Gaza Strip on June 25, 2006, was close to being finalized.
Israeli media quoted Netanyahu as telling the ministers that while the government was committed to making every effort to gain Shalit's release, they should ignore media reports and rumours on the subject.
For his part al-Muzeini, who handles the Shalit case for Hamas, told a pro-Hamas website that there were still 'some phases' which needed to be worked out to secure the deal.
He too criticised the media reports, saying that all the talk on the subject adversely affected the issue.
The London-based al-Hayat newspaper had reported over the weekend that Damascus-based exiled Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal is expected to leave Jordan for Cairo this week, supposedly to give the final seal of approval to a prisoner exchange deal with Israel.
According to the German weekly Der Spiegel the German official mediating the talks between Israel and Hamas has given the Islamist organization a new proposal, for which a response is expected within three days.
The report said Israel would free 450 prisoners in return for Shalit. Israel would also release hundreds of Palestinian detainees at a future date, but as a humanitarian gesture and with no set time limit.
Since he was taken in the cross-border raid launched by three Palestinian militant groups, Shalit has been held largely incommunicado, apart from one audio tape Hamas released a year after he was taken. In it, he pleaded for a successful end to the prisoner swap talks and said he needed hospitalization since his health was deteriorating.
The International Committee of the Red Cross, which has not been allowed to visit the captive, demanded in June that Hamas allow Shalit regular contact with his family.
Earlier, mostly Egyptian-mediated attempts to broker a deal for his freedom have failed, but speculation is rife in Israel and the Palestinian areas that this latest attempt, via German mediation, could succeed.
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