Hamas immediately dismisses move as insufficient; group said to want 1,000 men, plus minors, women.
By HERB KEINONGilad Schalit 248.88(photo credit: Courtesy)
An interministerial committee presented Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on Thursday with a list of 450 names of Palestinian prisoners to be released in exchange for kidnapped soldier Gilad Schalit, in a move immediately dismissed by Hamas as insufficient.
Half of the list drawn up by the committee, headed by Vice Premier Haim Ramon, included names that were on a list of 350 to 450 security prisoners that Hamas has been demanding for Schalit. Hamas is reportedly asking for some 1,000 men, plus all the minors and women prisoners, in exchange for Schalit, held in the Gaza Strip since June 2006.
If Olmert approves the list on Friday, it would be transferred to Egyptian intelligence chief Omar Suleiman, who would pass it on to Hamas.
Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum said Israel was trying to get out of the conditions for the exchange that were agreed upon previously with the Egyptians, before the negotiations collapsed. He said the present list did not even meet Hamas's minimum demands. Barhoum said Hamas was demanding that Israel release all the "veteran prisoners" and those who had been sentenced to life in prison.
The list has not been made public.
The submission of the list comes at a time of a standstill in the negotiations, which are being conducted through Egypt. The security cabinet instructed Ramon and his committee - which included Justice Minister Daniel Friedmann, Public Security Minister Avi Dichter and Minister-without-Portfolio Ami Ayalon - to draw up new, more flexible criteria last month, in a signal to Hamas it was interested in moving the negotiations forward.
Israel Radio reported that the Ramon panel announced it would not meet again to further water down the criteria and offer to trade more dangerous prisoners in exchange for Schalit.
While Israel has said in the past that its policy was not to release Palestinian prisoners with "blood on their hands," the current list is widely believed to include a number of men who fall into that category.
Earlier this month, Ramon warned Hamas that its refusal to reduce its demands would doom a deal to swap Palestinian prisoners for Schalit. He added that the onus was not just on Israel. "If there is no flexibility in Hamas's demands as well, it won't be possible to reach a deal," he said.
Hamas initially demanded some 450 prisoners for Schalit, but upped the ante following Israel's release in July of Lebanese terrorist/murderer Samir Kuntar, four Hizbullah prisoners and the bodies of 200 terrorists and infiltrators for the bodies of IDF reservists Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev.
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