Hadas to visit Cairo
Photo: Moshe Millner, GPO
Gilad Shalit: 1,113 days in captivity
Photo: Noam Rotem
Israel to present its stand on prisoner swap
State officials believe progress may be made this week ahead of resuming talks aimed at securing kidnapped soldier Gilad Shalit's release
Israel is preparing to resume the negotiations aimed at securing kidnapped soldier Gilad Shalit's release. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's
special envoy, Hagai Hadas is expected to visit Cairo soon in order to study the recent developments in the matter.
At this stage, no official details on Hadas' expected visit to Cairo have been released, but a flurry of activity is being seen both in Israel
and in Egypt
over the plan to resume the negotiations.
Hagai is expected to present the Egyptian mediators with Israel's stand on resuming the talks, which have been in a state of deadlock since former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert left office.
Accusations
In exclusive Yedioth Ahronoth interview, Egyptian president blames Jewish state for failure of talks at end of Olmert's tenure as prime minister, which he says led Hamas to toughen its demands. He expresses his confidence, however, that matter will be resolved soon
Netanyahu's stand as to the conditions for resuming the talks has yet to be reported. It is unclear whether the government will agree to the Hamas demand rejected by Olmert, to free 450 Palestinian terrorists. It is also unclear whether Israel will be willing to relax its demand to deport some of the terrorists who live in the West Bank to Gaza.
Hadas, who was put in change of the Shalit case only several weeks, is still studying the matter. The preparations for his trip to Cairo are being completed, including scheduled meetings with the Egyptian mediators headed by Intelligence Minister Omar Suleiman.
Senior Israeli officials have clarified, however, that the preparations for the visit do not point to an upcoming release of the kidnapped soldier. "We may make progress this week ahead of resuming the negotiations. One must not develop exaggerated expectations that Shalit will return home in the near future," one of the sources said Saturday night.
Gilad Shalit's father, Noam, will visit the French city of Strasbourg on Tuesday and take part in the opening of the European Parliament session. He is expected to meet with different European representatives in a bid to advance his son's release.
Osama al-Muzeini, who is in charge of the Shalit case in Hamas, said on Friday that the reports on progress made in the talks were false, adding that no one in the organization's leadership – including himself – knew whether the kidnapped soldier was "injured, sick or dead".
"Our stand is stable and will not change, and everything being said is part of the psychological war run by the Zionists. Israeli media outlets are the ones distributing these reports," he argued.
Gilad Shalit was kidnapped into the Gaza Strip 1,113 days ago.
