Report: Hamas sets 48-hour deadline for prisoner swap (2nd Roundup)

Dec 6, 2009, 22:24 GMT

Jerusalem - Hamas sources said Sunday that the next 48 hours will be critical for an a agreement on a prisoner swap for the release of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, broadcaster al-Jazeera reported Sunday.

German mediator Ernst Uhrlau arrived Sunday in Tel Aviv to present to Israeli officials Hamas's last offer for the swap deal, the sources said.

Hamas officials said Sunday to al-Jazeera that Israel has 48 hours to accept their demand for the release of several hundred Palestinian prisoners in exchange for Shalit.

After consulting with Israeli officials, Uhrlau is to return early this week to Gaza to meet representatives Hamas's de facto government in the territory. Hamas forces took Shalit prison in June 2006 at the Gaza border.

Talks between Israel and Hamas on his release have been intensified during the last two weeks with mediation by Germany and Egypt.

Hamas strongman Mohammed al-Zahar denied media reports that French doctors had visited the Gaza Strip last week to examine Shalit.

There was no official Israeli reaction, and Shalit's father told the Y-Net news website that he had no knowledge of the doctors' visit.

Shalit was snatched during a cross-border raid launched by three militant groups from the Gaza Strip on June 25, 2006, and has been held in virtually incommunicado since then.

Hamas is demanding that Israel free hundreds of Palestinians from its jails in return for the soldier. Negotiations over the deal, conducted at first under Egyptian mediation but now being carried out via German auspices, are said to be well advanced.

According to media reports, four French doctors entered the strip via the Rafah crossing from Egypt on November 29 and were taken under heavy Hamas guard to see Shalit, accompanied by Uhrlau.

The medical team checked Shalit under heavy secrecy and heavy security measures at the place where he is being held by Hamas and the Popular Resistance Committees group.

Gaza residents said that on November 29 they heard of helicopters and remote pilotless vehicles hovering over the Gaza Strip for about an hour.

The aircraft did not strike any target, and many in Gaza believe the presence of the aircraft had to to with Shalit, though no one can confirm whether they were observing the French medical team.

The German mediator involved in trying to forge a deal has reportedly promised Hamas that Israel will not try to rescue Shalit.

In October, London-based daily Asharq al-Awsat quoted an unnamed Israeli senior defence official as saying that that Israel knows Shalit's whereabouts and that the location is under constant surveillance.

According to the report, the official said Israel could storm the location but would not do so out of fear that Shalit would be hurt or killed.

An Israeli attempt in 1994 to rescue kidnapped soldier Nachshon Wachsman in East Jerusalem resulted in the death of the hostage.