Israel: No deal on prisoner swap with Hamas
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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday sought to chill down a simmering speculation that a prisoner swap deal with Hamas is now around the corner, local daily The Jerusalem Post reported.
"There is no deal yet, and when there will be, it will be brought for debate in the Knesset (parliament) and voted on in the cabinet," Netanyahu was quoted as saying at a meeting with lawmakers from his Likud Party.
"However, the time has not come yet," he said.
The remarks were Netanyahu's first public response to some assertions and predictions circulating in the air. Among them are that Hamas has presented Israel with a name list of prisoners it wants back that meets Israel's criteria and that Shalit would be transferred to Egypt as early as Friday, the beginning of the Muslim festival of Eid al-Adha.
The past few weeks has witnessed a flurry of press coverage on local and international media suggesting that Israel and Hamas are about to seal a deal that would see the Palestinian group release kidnapped Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit and the Jewish state free some 1,000 Palestinian prisoners in return.
Earlier in the day, Netanyahu's office also poured cold water at the heated coverage, accusing some reports of being "intentionally distorted". It did not specify any particular information.
With a similar tone, the Israeli army's Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi also warned that media reports "do not help solve the problem."
Since Shalit was taken away by Hamas-led Palestinian militants more than three years ago, the cause celebre has generated mounting public pressure upon the Israeli government. Yet all the attempts made so far for his freedom failed to yield any results.
Nonetheless, signs are emerging that the two sides are getting closer to a deal. Following his Sunday trip to Egypt, where the government has been trying to broker a prisoner swap deal between Israel and Hamas, Israeli President Shimon Peres said that "real progress" has been made on the matter.
Among other indications, a Hamas delegation reportedly travelled to Cairo on Monday for discussions on the exchange, and Shalit's family met Israel's point man for the indirect contacts with Hamas.
Late last week, Hamas announced that it had reached an agreement with other armed groups in Gaza to halt rocket fire at Israel in order to avoid Israel's retaliation, which also added to the looming prospect of an exchange.
In early October, Israel released 20 Palestinian women from its jails in return for a video clip which showed that Shalit was in good health.
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