Sources: Israel agrees to free all 450 Hamas prisoners for Shalit By Avi Issacharoff and Yoav Stern, Haaretz Correspondents Last update - 06:19 13/03/2009 www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1070739.html

Israel has agreed to free all 450 of the prisoners demanded by Hamas in
exchange for kidnapped Israel Defense Forces soldier Gilad Shalit, and the
dispute now revolves around Israel's demand that some of these prisoners be
deported rather than returned home, Palestinian sources in Cairo said
Thursday.

Ofer Dekel, Israel's lead negotiator on the issue, was in Cairo Thursday for
further talks with Egyptian mediators.

According to the sources, Israel is insisting that several dozen of the
released prisoners be exiled abroad and that others be released to Gaza
rather than the West Bank. However, Hamas has thus far agreed to the
deportation of only a handful of prisoners, and has conditioned even this on
the consent of the prisoners to be deported. It also opposes releasing
prisoners to Gaza rather than the West Bank.

Though Hamas officials are concerned that a deal might be harder to strike
once a new Israeli government takes office, they insist that they will not
agree to any further compromises. Senior Hamas official Mahmoud A-Zahar even
denied Thursday that talks were taking place at all and said Israeli reports
of progress are false.

"Hamas isn't talking with anyone about a prisoner exchange for Shalit," he
told the Nazareth-based newspaper Kul al-Arab by telephone from Cairo. "If
anyone's holding negotiations, it isn't us."

Abu Obeida, a spokesman for Hamas' military wing, also denied reports of
progress in the talks.

"It's a lie," he told Kul al-Arab. "The talks with Egypt on the matter are
currently frozen."

Meanwhile, Hamas and Fatah continued their reconciliation talks in Cairo
Thursday. The talks are expected to continue at least through Saturday.

Israel has lost the ability to fight our enemy to their defeat and now always seeks the easy way out which will only cause Israel more pain down the road.