GAZA CITY/RAMALLAH, 11 April 2007 — Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh said yesterday that the ball was in Israel’s camp over a prisoner exchange deal for a soldier held by Gaza fighters. “We are serious in our will to proceed with an exchange and we hope that negotiations will lead to the freeing of our detainees from the prisons of the Israeli occupier,” Haniyeh told reporters in Gaza City.
“The ball is in Israel’s camp and everything now depends on the answer that Israel will give to the just Palestinian demand to free our prisoners,” he said. On Sunday, an Israeli official told reporters the Jewish state had received a list of people the Palestinians want freed in exchange for Gilad Shalit, a serviceman captured on June 25 by Gaza-based fighters.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert yesterday examined the list with Yuval Diskin, the head of the Shin Beth domestic security service, army radio said. A source close to the Palestinian government told AFP the list contained the names of 450 prisoners, including such leading jailed militants as Marwan Barghouthi and Ahmed Saadat, both members of the Palestinian Parliament.
Olmert’s office said ministers had expressed “disappointment and reservation” over the list of prisoners. Olmert’s office said in a statement the prime minister had held his first discussion on the list yesterday with security officials, who included Defense Minister Amir Peretz and the head of Israel’s Mossad spy agency, Meir Dagan. “During the discussion, disappointment and reservation was expressed over the list of prisoners Hamas is asking to be freed,” the statement said.
