Officials refuse to negotiate on prisoners to be released; group wants to free those serving life.
By JPOST.COM STAFFGilad Schalit 248.88(photo credit: Courtesy)
Hamas will not exchange kidnapped IDF soldier Gilad Schalit for a list of the Islamist organization's prisoners determined by Israel, Hamas strongman Mahmoud Zahar declared Friday.
Zahar, speaking after Friday prayers in the northern Gaza Strip, said that Hamas sought to free Palestinian prisoners serving life sentences.
Another Hamas official, Ismail Redwan, said his organization would not allow any changes in the prisoners list it had submitted to Israel nor did it intend to prepare an alternative list of prisoners to be released in exchange for Schalit.
The tough talk from Gaza came after Egyptian intelligence chief Omar Suleiman told the London-based Arabic daily Al-Hayat that Ofer Dekel, Israel's chief negotiator in the Schalit talks, would be in Cairo early this week.
According to the report, the two would "discuss ways to kick-start Egyptian mediation and moderate the positions of both sides with the intention of unfreezing the negotiations."
An Egyptian source quoted by the paper denied recent reports that Israel had informed Cairo of its intention to call off the cease-fire agreement in Gaza due to the lack of progress in the Schalit affair.
Egypt is the party that is most interested in formulating a swap deal between Israel and Hamas, the source said, adding that the central precondition to opening the Rafah crossing from Gaza was Schalit's release.
The Jerusalem Post could not confirm the report.
The London-based daily Al-Quds al-Arabi quoted a Hamas source over the weekend as saying that the organization had decided to find a new mediator to take over for Egypt and broker a deal with Israel.
According to the report, Hamas said Egypt could no longer play an impartial role in the talks because it favored Israel's demands.
Sources told the paper that Hamas had contacted officials from several Arab and other foreign countries, asking them to mediate a deal with Israel instead of Egypt.
The sources also told the paper that Israel was unhappy with the Egyptian meditation, saying Dekel had informed several foreign officials involved in the negotiations that Israel would like to see a new third party broker the talks.
Nonetheless, they said, Dekel believed that pushing Egypt out of the process altogether would cause a diplomatic rift between Jerusalem and Cairo.
There was no comment from Israeli officials.
News agencies contributed to this report
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