Officials: Israel may authorize terms for Shalit deal on Wednesday

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's security cabinet could approve as early as Wednesday a deal for the release of Israel Defense Forces soldier Gilad Shalit, senior Israeli officials said on Monday.

Olmert told a visiting U.S. congressional delegation on Monday that he intended to bring before the cabinet by midweek a proposal for a deal with the Islamist Hamas group.

The proposal is intended to expedite an agreement on Shalit's release, curbing the smuggling of arms and ammunition into the Gaza Strip and bringing quiet and security to residents of the south, he said.

A senior Israeli official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the security cabinet would possibly "authorize the parameters of a deal" during the Wednesday discussion.

"This is real. They are discussing and debating who will be released" in exchange for Shalit, a second official said.

Shalit was captured by Hamas-allied militants in a cross-border raid from the Gaza Strip in June 2006. Hamas, the rulers of the Gaza Strip, have demanded that Israel release hundreds of Palestinian prisoners in exchange for the Israeli soldier's freedom.

Israel believes that Hamas wants to close the deal before a hardline rightist government, possibly led by Likud Chairman Benjamin Netanyahu, takes office.

"Timing is a factor here because Olmert wants to leave behind a clean slate and Netanyahu has an interest in taking office without the Shalit case hanging over him," one of the Israeli officials said.

Olmert told Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak earlier Monday that Shalit's release was Israel's top priority, and reiterated that Jerusalem would not agree to a complete truce deal with Hamas until he was freed.

"I clarified my stance to the most senior Egyptian representatives," Olmert said during a meeting with Mubarak. "We will not open [Gaza] border crossings to Hamas as long as Shalit remains under their cruel captivity. When Gilad is home, we will be ready to discuss the rest of the issues."

According to the prime minister, Israel's stance has not changed - first Shalit's release, then the other issues. "This has been my position from day one," he said.

Hamas warned on Monday that Olmert's brinkmanship over Shalit put broader cease-fire talks in jeopardy.

But senior Hamas official Moussa Abu Marzouk told Al Jazeera Television from Cairo, "We are ready ... to open the file of Gilad Shalit for negotiation."

"If they want him back at home as they say, they have to let the Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli prisons go home too," he added.

Another Hamas official, Taher al-Nono, said "a clear agreement" on a cease-fire had been reached until Olmert, over the weekend, insisted on Shalit being freed first.

"We stress our rejection of any Israeli blackmail," he said.

As the prisoner exchange deal between Israel and Hamas takes, Israel has insisted that the high-level Palestinian terror masterminds it will free in exchange for Shalit will not be allowed to return to Gaza or the West Bank, but rather be exiled to Syria or Lebanon, the London-based Arabic language Al-Hayat reported Monday.

Hamas has yet to respond to this Israeli demand, but Egyptian intelligence chief Omar Suleiman said last Friday that Egypt is opposed to exiling these life sentence prisoners. In essence, Suleiman said that Egypt will insist that these prisoners return home.

On Sunday, Hader Shkirat, attorney for jailed leader of Fatah's Tanzim faction Marwan Barghouti, told Haaretz that there would be no deal for Shalit without the release of his client.

Hader added that he believes that a prisoner exchange deal will be formulated within days, and that his client will be among the Palestinian prisoners freed in the exchange.

"I can't say for certain whether Marwan's release will happen as part of the exchange, before it or after it, but in any case, he will be released," Hader told Haaretz.

A spokesman for Hamas' military wing, Abu Obeida, said Sunday that the group insists on the release of three senior figures: Ibrahim Hamed, the leader of the military wing in the West Bank; Abdullah Barghouti, responsible among others for the bombings at the Sbarro pizzeria and Cafe Moment in Jerusalem; and Abbas al-Sayed, mastermind of the Park Hotel massacre in Netanya.

With this announcement, Hamas is essentially saying that it has no intention of engaging in negotiations over the list of prisoners it has presented Israel.