Berlin, August 30: Israel has accepted a German-mediated prisoner swap deal for captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit to which Hamas has yet to respond, Germany
weekly Der Spiegel said in its edition to appear Monday.
“The German secret services have recently been holding talks with the Israeli government and Hamas. The aim is to obtain the exchange of Gilad Shalit against several hundred Palestinian prisoners,” Der Spiegel said.
The Israeli government of right-wing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has accepted the proposal which would see 450 Palestinian prisoners released and Hamas has until early September to respond, Der Spiegel said, without citing sources.
Shalit was captured by Palestinian militants including from Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, in a cross-border raid in June 2006. Successive Egyptian efforts to broker a prisoner exchange deal have floundered.
Egypt has accused Israel of altering its terms when on the verge of a deal.
The German deal resembles previous Egyptian proposals: Israel would release a first batch of prisoners, Shalit would be taken across the border from Gaza to Cairo, and then more Palestinians would be released.
Israeli radio reported that a senior German official was recently in Israel and Egypt in the hope of sealing a deal.
Germany in 2004 brokered a deal between Israel and the Lebanese Shiite movement Hezbollah that saw an Israeli businessman and the remains of three Israeli soldiers swapped for more than 400 Arab prisoners.
Then a 19-year-old corporal, Shalit was captured by militants from Hamas and two smaller groups who had tunnelled out of Gaza on June 25, 2006 and attacked an army post, killing two other soldiers.
Shalit, who has since been promoted to staff sergeant, is believed to be held somewhere inside the Gaza Strip, under Hamas control since the Islamist movement seized power in the Palestinian enclave two years ago.
–Agencies