Israel’s president Shimon peres said that “progress” has been seen in the efforts to free Gilad Shalit, an Israeli soldier captured by Hamas three years ago.

The following disclosure was made by Peres after he met the Egypt’s president, Hosni Mubarak on Monday in Cairo.

Peres said “There are negotiations between the two sides. I don’t think the negotiations need an addition of words. As we all know, there is progress. I hope it will end positively”.

Zeina Awad of Al Jazeera reported from Tel Aviv that “Hamas has said on the record that there has been progress, but they caution against what they see as a media storm over the issue”.

“We have spoken to a large number of high-ranking officials within Hamas, and off the record they have said to us that a deal is at its final stages. It’s down to numbers, and it’s down to lists of prisoners that will be exchanged for Shalit”.

“We understand from Hamas that the contentious issues are that Hamas wants a comprehensive list that includes Hamas prisoners as well as Fatah prisoners, as well as so-called Israeli-Arabs or Palestinians with Israeli passports, and East Jerusalemites”.

“Israel simply does not want this, instead it wants to narrow the list to those from the West Bank and Gaza”.

Egypt has been a mediator for negotiations between Hamas and Israel indirectly conducted and through Egypt as their medium. Germany has also been seen as the mediator in recent months.

But still there are differences between Hamas and Israel, since Israel arrested 70 Hamas members after Shalit was taken as a hostage. Hamas wants its members to be released in return for Shalit but Israel is thinking not to allow them to return to Palestine, it instead wants to exile them.

The father of the captured soldier, Noam Shalit said “Of course we are hoping and want to see Gilad at home after so many years, To my regret I cannot discuss [this] today, and I don’t want to. This is not the time for chatter but for action”.

A senior political analyst, Marwan Bishara expressed that the deal seems closer this time. He said “This time around there is at least one sign from this week, the Israelis have put all those hundreds of prisoners in three distinct prisons within Israel. Perhaps they are preparing the way for transferring them all as one”.

The Israeli prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu refused to confirm whether the deal would soon be acted upon.

He said in a statement from his office “The efforts to win Gilad Shalit’s release are continuing and taking place outside the media spotlight. We have no intention of commenting beyond this”.

Israel freed about 20 Palestinian women taken in captivity in exchange for a video showing Shalit in October in which he was shown alive and moving for the first time after he was taken hostage.

(Courtesy : Al Jazeera)