Israeli defense minister: "Grain of truth" in reports of talks with Hamas

Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak on Tuesday partially confirmed foreign media reports of renewed talks in Cairo over a prisoner swap with Hamas, in order to free an Israeli soldier held by the Islamist group since 2006. Hamas wants Israel to free some 1,000 security prisoners in return for Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) Cpl. Gilad Shalit, who was abducted from an Israeli outpost bordering the Gaza Strip. There is "a kernel of facts behind rumors about negotiations on the subject of Gilad Shalit," Barak said, adding that "There were two real talks with the relevant elements in the last five years - but they did not succeed." An Israel army radio report Tuesday said that Israeli negotiator David Meidan and his team were holding indirect talks with Hamas officials in Cairo, via Egyptian interlocutors relaying the negotiations between two separate rooms. A report from the London-based Al-Hayat newspaper said that Hamas leader Khalad Mashal was due in Cairo on Tuesday. The newspaper quoted Palestinian sources who said that Israel was showing more flexibility on contentious issues including the release of imprisoned East Jerusalem, and Israeli Arabs, and the number of prisoners to be deported from the West Bank, than in the past. Barak, however, demurred when asked by local media to confirm or deny the reports. In an interview with a Tel Aviv radio station, the defense minister said that he "preferred not to say anything, because it doesn't help," according to Israel National News. A senior Hamas official, Osama Hamdan, told Al-Hayat that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu remained unwilling to meet the group's full demands.