| 30 Aug 2008 |
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Olmert 'willing' to release 450 Palestinian prisoners for Shalit
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30 August 2008
OCCUPIED JERUSALEM: Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is willing to release some 450 Palestinian prisoners in exchange for an Israeli soldier held by militants in the Gaza Strip, an Israeli newspaper reported Friday.
Olmert has asked the five ministers dealing with the proposed swap with the Hamas movement to draw up the list which would increase from about 80 the number of prisoners Israel is willing to release in exchange for Gilad Shalit, the Haaretz newspaper said.
The Israeli corporal, who turned 22 on Wednesday, was captured in a deadly cross-border raid from Gaza in June 2006 and is believed to be held by Hamas. The Islamist movement routed the rival Fatah movement from the impoverished Palestinian territory in June 2007 after reports emerged in the Arab press of an impending Fatah-led takeover. Hamas soundly beat Hamas in legislative elections in early 2006.
Olmert's spokesman Mark Regev would not confirm or deny the report. "Giving such information does not facilitate his release," the spokesman said.
Haaretz reported that the ministers are to meet Sunday to discuss ways of easing the criteria that determines which prisoners can be released. The Jewish state has long had a policy of not releasing prisoners accused of deadly attacks on its citizens.
However, Israel released Lebanese prisoner Samir Kontar, convicted by Israel of a deadly 1979 raid, during a prisoner swap with the Lebanese resistance movement Hizbullah in July.
Israel and Hamas have been holding indirect negotiations through Egyptian mediators on a deal to exchange Shalit for Palestinians held in Israeli prisons.
Israel blacklists Hamas as a terrorist organization, but the two sides agreed on June 19 to a truce in the Gaza Strip, also through Egyptian mediation which brought rocket attacks from Gaza into southern Israel to a near halt.
On Monday, Israel freed 198 Palestinian prisoners in a gesture to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas as US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was in the region to spur US-backed peace talks. Most of those prisoners were from Abbas' Fatah party and none from Hamas, in a move which was meant to bolster the Occupied West Bank leader. - AFP
ACompiled by Daily Star staff
Israel arrested four fishermen from the Gaza Strip on Friday when naval vessels intercepted their boats off the Mediterranean coast, Israeli and Palestinian officials said, as a Palestinian died after stepping on what police said was an Israeli land mine in the Occupied West Bank.
The incident in the Mediterranean was a rare confrontation since a June 19 truce brokered by Egypt has calmed violence between Israel and Hamas-ruled Gaza.
An Israeli military spokesman said navy men stopped three Palestinian fishing boats early on Friday after they floated beyond the Gaza Strip's territorial waters toward Israel, and that the fishermen on board had been "taken for questioning in Israel."
Hamas security officials said four fishermen were arrested, aged 18, 39, 55 and 60, and that three were members of the same family.
Meanwhile, Palestinian police said that an Occupied West Bank farmer died after tripping a landmine on his way to work in his fields on Friday. The 24-year-old Palestinian was killed early Friday west of the Occupied West Bank town of Jenin by a device police identified as an Israeli mine, the official said. The Israeli Army used the area in the past as a training ground, the police official added.
He spoke on condition of anonymity because the Palestinian police had not issued an official statement.
The Israeli military said it had received reports of the incident from the Palestinians. The military denied there were any Israeli mines in the vicinity, and claimed the area contained Jordanian mines left over from when Jordan controlled the West Bank, before Israel seized the territory in 1967.
The Israeli military retains overall control of the Occupied West Bank, but police loyal to moderate Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas have limited authority in some areas. - Agencies
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