Israel could free 980 Palestinian prisoners if the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas agrees to hand over captive Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, reports said.
Ynet news website quoted Israeli court documents as saying Israel could free 450 prisoners selected by Hamas and, “as part of a unilateral gesture to the Palestinian people, an additional 530 terrorists chosen by Israel”.
More than 7,000 Palestinians are held in Israeli prisons.
Ynet and Israeli state radio said on Sunday that the government informed the Supreme Court of the possible releases after an Israeli group appealed to the court, demanding that Israel provide the names of Palestinians to be freed. The group opposes the release of any Palestinian involved in deadly attacks against Israelis.
State radio said the names of those to be freed will be disclosed only when the government and Hamas reach agreement on a swap.
Both sides have undertaken to remain “completely silent” about details of a list held by the German intermediary leading the negotiations, state radio said.
The authorities have imposed a news blackout about the negotiations.
Egypt tried for months to broker an exchange before the German mediator joined the talks earlier this year.
Shalit, who holds both Israeli and French nationality, was seized in June 2006 when Gaza militant groups, including Hamas, tunnelled out of the enclave and attacked an Israeli army post, killing two other soldiers. AFP
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