Last update - 00:00 17/09/2006
Source: Talks on Gilad Shalit's release 'moving ahead'
A government source said Saturday in Jerusalem that talks over the release of abducted Israel Defense Forces soldier Gilad Shalit were "moving ahead and coming closer, but that it is doubtful they will be completed in a week."
Security sources have refused to confirm or deny reports that Israel had received a sign of life recently from Shalit, who is being held in the Gaza Strip. Palestinian sources have told Haaretz that the sign of life was a letter written by the soldier to his father, Noam Shalit.
But Noam Shalit told Army Radio on Sunday that he has had no reliable indication that his son is still alive, and refused to comment on the letter he is reported to have received from his son.
According to Army Radio, the note reads: "I am okay. They are treating me well."
Nevertheless, Israel says reports in the Arab media of a deal to be clinched within a few days are too optimistic.
The sources say progress has been made, but that there has been no "dramatic development" that would lead to Shalit's release so soon. The IDF said last week's decision by Military Court Judge Major Ronen Atzmon to release Hamas ministers jailed in Israel has no bearing on the deal. The military prosecution appealed the decision, and the ministers' release has been delayed.
Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh said Saturday there was "lots of movement" in negotiations over the release of an Israel Defense Forces soldier held by Hamas-allied militants.
However, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's office told Israel Radio that while negotiations continue to broker a deal that would bring about the release of the soldier, so far no real breakthroughs have been made.
The prime minster's representative for the kidnapped soldiers, Ofer Dekel, is leading the talks through Egypt, and apparently went to Cairo recently.
Regarding the reports of a letter, Gilad's father Noam Shalit told Haaretz over the weekend, "I cannot comment on statements or all the headlines in the Arab press." Shalit said no Israeli official had informed him of a breakthrough in the talks.
The Saudi newspaper Ukaz reported this weekend that Shalit would be transferred to Egypt on Sunday, while on Thursday the London-based Al Quds al Arabi said he had been moved that day.
Both papers reported that a prisoner swap had been finalized in a meeting between Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, Egyptian intelligence head Oman Suleiman, and Shin Bet security service chief Yuval Diskin in Jordan last Tuesday, although apparently no such meeting had taken place.
Noam Shalit is closely following developments in the Palestinian arena.
"I know that Abu Ala [former PA prime minister Ahmed Qureia] is in Damascus and Abu Mazen [Abbas] said that before the new government is established, the Shalit affair has to come to an end. Logic says this is true, and I hope all this shows progress toward an end to the affair."
Shalit accepted an invitation by former MK Abdulwahab Darawshe Saturday to come to the Arab Democratic Party headquarters in Nazareth, where he reiterated his plea to the kidnappers to take advantage of the holidays to release his son in exchange for Palestinian prisoners.
Representatives of the families of the soldiers being held captive in Lebanon, Udi Goldwasser and Eldad Regev, will take part this week in a large demonstration against terror. The rally, organized by the Jewish communities of New York, will be held outside United Nations Headquarters after the General Assembly starts.
"It is important to us to take part in the rally, and we will be together on the dais to transmit the message to the world's leaders that our sons have not yet come home, despite many promises," Shlomo Goldwasser, Udi's father, told Haaretz.
He said the Foreign Ministry had arranged for the families to meet with a number of officials at the UN, including UN Secretary General Kofi Annan. He said they had no mandate to negotiate, but would not rule out direct approaches to Arab leaders at the UN.