April 09, 2007	Monday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 20, 1428

JERUSALEM, April 8: Israel and the Palestinians inched closer to a prisoner exchange deal for a soldier held by Gaza militants on Sunday as Israel confirmed it had received a list of people the Palestinians want freed.

As expected, the list included such leading jailed militants as Marwan Barghuti and Ahmed Saadat, both members of the Palestinian parliament.

In the first tangible sign of progress, Egyptian mediators handed officials in Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's office a list of several hundred prisoners, an official said.

“We have received a list of several hundreds of Palestinians, including many with blood on their hands, who the Palestinians want to have” in exchange for Corporal Gilad Shalit, the official said.

Israel refers to prisoners with “blood on their hands” as anyone who has carried out or helped plan the killing of Israelis, and has said it would not release such detainees.

Shalit was captured last June 25 by Palestinian militants, including members of the armed wing of the ruling Islamist Hamas movement, who raided an army outpost on the border with the Gaza Strip.

“We have moved another step forward, but there is still a lot of time before we see Shalit,” the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Olmert will convene his security cabinet later this week to set Israel's criteria for clearing prisoners for release, Welfare Minister Isaac Herzog said.

He said that Israel should “re-evaluate and reformulate criteria for the release of Palestinian prisoners, including those for prisoners with blood on their hands.” Olmert's spokeswoman Miri Eisin said only that “this is an extremely sensitive issue which is at the top of our priorities.”

The father of the captured soldier, Noam Shalit, was not ready to comment on the apparent progress, but said: “We are waiting patiently for the release of Gilad.” Palestinian information minister Mustafa al-Barghuti had announced the handover of the list, saying “the ball is now in the Israeli camp.” A source close to the Palestinian government said the list contained the names of 450 prisoners, and the information minister confirmed on Sunday that both Barghuti and Saadat were among them.

“I cannot give you the exact numbers, but I can tell you they (the lists) include the names of the leaders,” he said.

Barghuti, the West Bank leader of president Mahmud Abbas's secular Fatah movement who is widely revered by Palestinians as the mastermind of their second uprising or intifada, is serving five life sentences for planning attacks against Israelis. — AFP