Israel could swap 980 prisoners for captive soldier: report

Israeli objections to releasing certain prisoners are blocking a swap deal in which an Israeli soldier captured three years would be freed, an official of the Palestinian movement Hamas said on Friday.The deal is supposed to see the exchange of hundreds of Palestinians, including 450 chosen by Hamas, for soldier Gilad Shalit.But negotiations are blocked on three main points, the Hamas official told the daily Al-Hayat in an interview published on Friday.

Israel is refusing to free a group of Palestinian prisoners demanded by Hamas in exchange for a captured Israeli soldier, officials close to the talks on a deal said on Wednesday.They said Israel objected to releasing a group of Palestinian prisoners serving life terms or long sentences in exchange for Gilad Shalit who is being held by militants in Gaza, ruled by the Islamist movement Hamas.One official close to the indirect negotiations said reports of an imminent prisoner exchange were "premature."

Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal said Friday that captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit will not be freed unless Israel releases hundreds of Palestinian prisoners."Shalit will not to home before the liberation of our prisoners," Meshaal told thousands of people at a ceremony in Syria's capital Damascus, where he lives in exile.Meshaal made the remarks during the gathering to mark the first anniversary of the end of Israel's devastating 22-day offensive on the Gaza Strip.

Popular Palestinian leader Marwan Barghuti said in an Italian newspaper report Wednesday that he believed he was among hundreds of prisoners due to be exchanged for Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit.The Israeli government said Tuesday an exchange was imminent but this has been played down by Hamas, which was among the militant groups that captured the 23-year-old soldier in Gaza in 2006.

Hamas on Sunday accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government of "lying" to the Israeli people about a prisoner swap deal to secure the release of captured soldier Gilad Shalit.Shalit was snatched by Gaza-based militants, some of them from the Islamist Hamas movement, in June 2006 and efforts to free him in a prisoner swap deal collapsed last December.But Hamas, which rules the tiny coastal strip, accused the Israeli leader of misleading the public over the reason behind the collapse of negotiations.

Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal said on Tuesday that Israel was responsible for the delay in releasing an Israeli soldier held in the Gaza Strip for more than three years.Meshaal also insisted that Sergeant Gilad Shalit will only be freed when Israel agrees to conditions by the Islamist Palestinian movement, which is demanding that he be swapped for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners."Shalit will only be exchanged when the Israelis have accepted Hamas's demands," the visiting Meshaal, who lives in exile in Damascus, told a televised news conference in Tehran.

Several thousand people demonstrated on Tuesday in Paris for the release of an Israeli soldier held captive in the Gaza Strip for nearly four years and to support Israel.Several French Jewish organisations including France's chief rabbi Gilles Bernheim called the rally of support for Gilad Shalit, who is also a French citizen, at Paris' Trocadero square near the River Seine.The protestors bore banners reading "Freedom for Gilad Shalit", Hamas terrorists, Iran accomplices" and "Defending Israel is defending democracy".

The father of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit on Monday appealed to the UN Human Rights Council to press for the release of his son, who was seized by Hamas fighters almost four years ago.Noam Shalit underlined that the Goldstone report on violence in Gaza -- which was adopted by the 47 member council last year but vehemently rejected by Israel -- had called for Gilad to be allowed visits from the Red Cross, his parents, or be released.