PRC: Shalit affair to end within days
Popular Resistance Committees, one of three groups responsible for kidnapping Gilad Shalit, says progress has been made regarding soldier's and prisioners' release
The PRC statement said that the three groups had agreed on an Egyptian proposal for the release of Gilad Shalit that would also see an unspecified number of Palestinian prisoners freed by Israel.
In recent days, reports of progress regarding negotiations on Shalit's return have increased. Granted, since the kidnapping, there have been endless declarations of progress in the affair, which have not borne fruit. However, the most recent announcement seems to have more weight, as it was issued by the kidnappers themselves.
Despite this, senior officials in various Palestinian organizations, primarily Hamas, said in recent days that there had not been a final breakthrough.
Palestinian sources reported on more intensive meetings than in the past and claim that the central issue preventing a solution is the question of the timing of Palestinian prisoners' release.
According to the sources, Israel wants to ensure that Shalit's release is voluntary and then will release some hundred Palestinian prisoners whose identity it will determine. In contrast, the Palestinian organizations demand the release of prisoners be simultaneous with Shalit's release.
Shalit's release could end PA conflict
Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas emphasized that Shalit's release is one of the conditions to end the internal conflict between Hamas and Fatah within the Palestinian Authority.
This weekend, Hamas senior officials – among them government spokesman Ghazi Hamad and a spokesman for Hamas' faction in parliament Salah Bardawil – said that the PA crisis would end in upcoming days and that a unity government would be formed, due to Egyptian mediation.
Friday, Ynet reported that Hamas is waiting for Israel's response to the group's offer to accept the principle of a prisoner exchange deal and to ease demands regarding the proximity between the release of kidnapped soldier Gilad Shalit and the consequent freeing of Palestinian prisoners.
According to the report, the organization's politburo head Khaled Mashaal will receive Israel's answer to the proposal during a meeting with Egypt's Intelligence Chief Omar Suleiman in Cairo in the coming days.
Apparently Mashaal told Suleiman that if Israel accepts the principle of the swap, Hamas would be able to show flexibility over the timetable of Shalit's and the Palestinian prisoners' release.
