Hamas

The pro-violence ideology of Hamas will have "implications for the West and Israel," said Oman. "What will happen in 10 or 15 years from these children after their exposure to this type of hate?"

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"It is the government's responsibility to present to the Israeli public the full information about the proposed prisoner exchange between Israel and Hamas," he said. "As someone who favors the arrangement and the return of prisoners in exchange for Gilad Schalit, I believe that the public will accept in advance and in full the list of prisoners and the details of the deal."

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Speaking to Army Radio, Eitan said that Hamas "are also opposed to his release … as he is likely to become their fierce opponent." Eitan stated that two outstanding issues were preventing negotiations from coming to a close, chiefly "which prisoners will be expelled from the West Bank to Gaza"

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"He'll be a way out for the Palestinian people, for Fatah, for Hamas, for the Palestinian factions, and even for the international community," said Khader Shkirat, Barghouti's lawyer. Shkirat, the lawyer, said Barghouti supports "the principle of negotiations" with Israel but that they should be coupled with "actions on the ground that fight the occupation," including demonstrations, sit-ins and "all types of peaceful, popular resistance."

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"I think that this list has been corrected by Hamas," Mr Kouchner said. "Since then, things are progressing in a positive way. We have no details on the date of the release or the exact contents of the list."

Read more: Israel and Hamas try to still frenzy over Gilad Schalit release | In this article: Gilad Schalit, Israel, Palestinian militants, Marwan Barghouti, Bernard Kouchner, Gaza, and West Bank

"No doubt [a swap] will give credit to Hamas and increase its popularity," said Said Zeedani, a Ramallah-based political analyst. "The reputation of the Palestinian Authority isn't going to be enhanced. They have not been a party to this."

Read more: Israel-Hamas prisoner swap talks advance | In this article: Gilad Shalit, Israel, Gaza, Mahmoud Abbas, Marwan Barghouti, Shimon Peres, U.S. State Department, and Benjamin Netanyahu

"This is the first time that Hamas will be releasing any prisoners," Abu Ein said in a telephone interview. The Palestine Liberation Organization, by contrast, has released "tens of thousands"

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"The officers showed us how the proposed deal could be extremely disastrous for Israel," said Rabinovitch. "The general attitude among us is that [Prime Minister Binyamin] Netanyahu is capitulating to pressure from the Left. There is no moral justification to free Schalit if we need to endanger every Jew living in Israel to do it," said Rabinovitch, referring to the Hamas demand to release hundreds of terrorists, including those responsible for the deaths of Israelis, as a precondition for Schalit's release. "This is especially true considering the fact that there are other ways of freeing Schalit that have not been exhausted yet,"

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Senior Gaza official Osama Hamdan had stressed earlier Monday that while Hamas was "serious in its intention to close the prisoner deal," a "happy ending" would not be possible until the "enemy's prime minister" agreed to the organization's "demands and conditions." Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu refused to confirm reports that a prisoner exchange was imminent, stressing during a Likud faction meeting on Monday afternoon that "There is no deal yet, and when there will be, it will be brought for debate in the Knesset and voted on in the cabinet."

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A senior Egyptian official said the Hamas delegation "came to inform us of the developments in the German-mediated negotiations." Israeli military censors have imposed a blackout on information about the indirect talks. "Recently many pieces of information originating abroad and in the foreign media have been published,"

Read more: Israel says no deal yet on Shalit prisoner swap (AFP) | In this article: Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, Gaza, Gilad Shalit, Egypt, and Jerusalem