Gaza: Egyptian mediators have resumed efforts to strike a deal to free an Israeli soldier captured by Palestinian fighters from Gaza but any breakthrough looks some way off, a senior Palestinian official said yesterday.
Israel launched an offensive in Gaza following the abduction of Corporal Gilad Shalit on June 25 by fighters including gunmen from the ruling Hamas faction. It opened a second front in Lebanon after Hezbollah seized two soldiers on July 12.
Israel said it was not aware of any fresh Egyptian mediation and Hamas denied it was involved in such talks.
"After negotiations stopped for a period of time, they have been resumed in order to get a result," Nabeel Sha'ath, a close aide to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, said.
Mediation, mainly driven by Egypt, had largely been frozen for weeks.
Sha'ath said mediators were pushing a deal that sought to end Israel's Gaza assault and also militant rocket fire by including the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners in return for Shalit.
"But so far we have no final agreement. We do not have a final agreement on numbers [of prisoners], dates or any handover mechanism. All that awaits approval from the two sides ... Hamas and Israel," Sha'ath said.
Sha'ath said that prisoners proposed for release would include the sick, the elderly, women and minors. As part of the mechanism, Shalit might be handed over to Egypt first, he said.
"It is better that a handover be done through a third party," he said.
Israel has ruled out negotiations to free Shalit and demanded his unconditional release.
