Israel waiting for Hamas response to Shalit offer(Haaretz)

Shalit still at stake...1 for Many?

Israel waiting for Hamas response to Shalit offer
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's special envoy on the Gilad Shalit issue traveled abroad yesterday for talks on a possible deal for the release of the captive Israel Defense Forces soldier, as a security source familiar with the negotiations said Israel was waiting for a Hamas response to its latest offer.

"The key is now with Hamas, and we are waiting for their response on the list of prisoners we gave them so that we can progress," the source said. Advertisement

On Sunday night the Shalit deal envoy, Ofer Dekel, relayed to Hamas a new list of Palestinian prisoners that Israel is willing to free in exchange for Shalit's release. The list, which was submitted through Egyptian mediators, is a revision of an earlier list rejected by Hamas.

Israel is still waiting to hear from Egypt on whether Hamas is willing to negotiate in Cairo over the prisoners' release. "If they agree, it will be possible to achieve progress," the security source said yesterday.

The Prime Minister's Bureau said Dekel was not scheduled to go to Cairo this week.

Prime Minister-designate Benjamin Netanyahu initiated a conversation with Shalit's father, Noam Shalit, yesterday. No details were released about the content of the conversation.

The Shalit family, along with members of an organization dedicated to the captive soldier's release, have repeatedly said they were concerned that efforts to secure Gilad Shalit's release would suffer when Netanyahu becomes prime minister.

"We will be in a restart position," one member of the organization said.

The Shalit family also met yesterday with Aliza Olmert, the wife of the outgoing prime minister, who said the government was working hard to bring Shalit home.

"I hope that the prime minister will be able to complete the exchange during the short time he has left in office," she said. "There is no wall separating the prime minister's residence from the protest tent in front of it. I identify with them completely, and were I not witness to the intensive efforts being made to gain [Shalit's] release, I would certainly join the protesters at the tent."

Earlier, the Shalit family had lunch with President Shimon Peres at the President's Residence.

Meanwhile, Tami Arad, wife of the missing air force navigator Ron Arad, called for the release of all the prisoners Hamas is demanding in exchange for Shalit's release.

"There has been plenty of time to haggle over the price," Arad told Army Radio. "Let's assume that three more years will pass and the price will drop to 380 murderers, will we feel better? Who can guarantee that there will be someone to come back?"

Other family members of abducted soldiers also got involved in the fight to free Shalit.

Zvi Regev, the father of Eldad Regev, who was killed in a Hezbollah attempt to abduct IDF soldiers in July 2006 - shortly after Shalit was abducted by Palestinian militants from the Gaza border - visited the protest tent yesterday. Other visitors included the father of Benny Avraham, who was kidnapped and killed in 2000 by Hezbollah, and the parents of Nachshon Wachsman, who was kidnapped by Hamas in 1994 and died during a failed IDF rescue attempt.

"We suffered this for a week, and they are suffering for three years," said Wachsman's father, Yehuda. "I don't know how they are holding on."