Hamas says needs time to study Israeli prisoner swap reply (Roundup)

Dec 23, 2009, 14:40 GMT

Gaza/Tel Aviv - Hamas needs time to study Israel's reply to demands to free hundreds of Palestinian prisoners in exchange for an Israeli soldier, a senior official of the Islamist group said Wednesday.

'Hamas needs several days to study the Israeli response and then we hand our answer to Israel through the German mediator,' Mohammed al-Zahar, among the Hamas leaders who has been indirectly negotiating the swap with Israel, told Israel Radio's Arabic-language service.

The Hamas leadership in both the Gaza Strip and Damascus would study the Israeli response, he said, without giving any hint of what Hamas' answer would be.

The German mediator, who handed over the Israeli response on Wednesday morning, has meanwhile left the Gaza Strip to head back to Germany to spend the Christmas holidays with his family, al-Zahar added.

Hamas is demanding the release of around 1,000 jailed militants in exchange for Gilad Shalit, who was snatched on June 25, 2006 during a cross-border raid by three militias based in the Strip.

Key Israeli ministers, who held a series of meetings on the matter Sunday and Monday, gave the green light to continue with the mediation efforts, but attached conditions.

Although the details of the negotiations have been kept under tight wrap, the Israeli Ma'ariv daily reported Wednesday that Israel was insisting that 120 of the prisoners to be freed be sent to the Gaza Strip, or even exiled abroad, rather than be allowed to return to their homes in the West Bank.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is opposed to allowing freed Hamas activists to return to their homes in the West Bank, for fear they would launch attacks on nearby Israeli population centres, or would attack the Palestinian Authority, which controls the West Bank and is Hamas' bitter rival.

Mustafa al-Sawaf, a Gaza-based political analyst close to Hamas, said the deportation of the prisoners either to the Gaza Strip or abroad, was a last obstacle in the way of closing the deal.

He said he thought Hamas would not accept the deportation of a large number of prisoners 'but would accept what the prisoners themselves decide.'

According to Ma'ariv, the Israel proposal suggests releasing 450 'heavyweight' Palestinian prisoners, as a first stage, and then, in a second stage, freeing another 550 prisoners, whose identity it alone will determine.

The rival Yediot Ahronot daily, meanwhile, reported that the German mediator, whose identity is being kept secret, is expected soon to receive a new position in Germany which will prevent him from continuing to shuttle between the Israeli and Hamas positions.

Quoting 'sources involved in the negotiations,' the Israeli newspaper said while the mediator has not issued any ultimatum to the sides, he has recommended that they speedily reach a deal, otherwise they would have to entrust the talks to a new envoy who would need time to familiarize himself with the situation.

Efforts to effect a prisoner swap have been taking place for years, mostly under Egyptian mediation. However, only after the German mediator was brought on board in the summer has the pace of the indirect negotiations picked up.