Prime Minister Ehud Olmert telephoned
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in honor of the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha on Sunday evening. The two spoke of the understandings they agreed upon
eight days ago in Jerusalem – namely the release of kidnapped Israeli soldier Cpl. Gilad Shalit and Palestinian prisoners.
Olmert expressed his hopes that the agreements will be implemented in the coming days.
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The agreements include the transfer of USD 100 million to the Palestinian Authority for humanitarian needs, upgrading the Rafah and Karni border crossings, removing roadblocks in the West Bank and re-activating the joint Israeli-Palestinian committee for the release of prisoners.
The work of the committee may bring to the release of Palestinian prisoners as an initial Israeli gesture ahead of Olmert's meeting with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in Sharm El Sheikh this coming Thursday.
However despite the call and despite statements made by Hamas officials over the past
24 hours the Prime Minister's Office clarified that no significant breakthroughs had been made on the matter. Olmert may still issue a joint announcement with Mubarak even if a date for the release of the prisoners is not set.
The release of the prisoners may be the first step in a process culminating in the release of Cpl. Shalit. The first stage will be a release of several dozen prisoners as a gesture to Abbas. This gesture had already been planned to take place on Eid al-Adha which commenced today but Olmert decided to postpone it due to massive public resistance to such a move in the face of repeated Palestinian attacks in breach of the declared ceasefire.
After this initial stage there will be talks between Israel
and Hamas, mediated by Egypt. The two sides will agree on the number and identity of the prisoners Hamas wants released, expected to be much higher than the first wave and Israel will release them to Egypt or President Abbas as part of the second step. At the same time Cpl. Shalit will be transferred to Egypt. After all of the Palestinian prisoners are released, Shalit will be transferred back to Israel.
Over the course of the past several days Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas has repeatedly stated that
Shalit's release was imminent. Haniyeh apparently based his statements on information brought by Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit who recently visited top Israeli officials in Jerusalem.
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