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A spokesman for the military wing of Hamas yesterday claimed a "substantial breakthrough" in negotiations for a prisoner exchange with Israel.
The deal, which is being brokered by Egypt, would see the release of Corporal Gilad Shalit, who was abducted in a cross-border raid on June 25, in a phased exchange for hundreds of Palestinian security prisoners. But Corporal Shalit's family and Israeli officials denied Arab media reports that they had already received a video proving he was alive.
Hamas spokesman Abu Abeida told Israel radio: "If things continue to progress in the channel in which they are currently progressing, I foresee a rapid deal."
Abu Mujahed, a spokesman for the Palestinian Resistance Committees, one of the three groups holding the kidnapped soldier, said: "We have accepted a phased exchange. In the first stage, Israel would release a number of prisoners and we would give Shalit to the Egyptian authorities. In the second stage, Israel would release more prisoners. Egypt then would hand Shalit to the Israeli authorities."
The Egyptians, he added, were still trying to complete the agreement. He praised Israel for the seriousness with which it was handling the exchange.
However, Sa'eb Erakat, who negotiates on behalf of the more moderate President Mahmoud Abbas, said talk of an early exchange was premature.
Israeli sources claimed that Hamas had lowered the price for releasing Corporal Shalit. The main stumbling block, they suggested, was the list of candidates it wanted freed from Israeli prisons.
But Abu Mujahed insisted: "We are demanding 1400 prisoners. We are not making any compromise on numbers."
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