Prime Minister's Office: Reports about Shalit deal 'misleading'

JERUSALEM ““ Reports about a deal to secure the release of a captured Israeli soldier are misleading, the prime minister’s office said.

Reports circulated over the weekend that a deal to release Gilad Shalit was imminent.

“Many details coming from abroad and in foreign media are being published lately, but they are not credible and some of them are even intentionally distorted,” the Prime Minister’s Office said Monday in a statement. “Efforts to secure Gilad Shalit’s release are continuously under way, out of the media’s view, and we have no intention of commenting beyond that.”

Shalit’s family met Monday in Tel Aviv with the prime minister’s special negotiator.

“Now is not the time to talk,” Shalit’s father, Noam, said prior to the meeting. Following the meeting he said, “I am still not reassured.”

Also Monday, a newspaper affiliated with Hamas reported that the deal hinges on one prisoner whose release is still being negotiated by the two sides. The report comes on the heels of a report Sunday by Fox News saying that Israel has approved a final list of 70 prisoners to be exchanged as part of the 450 prisoners named by Hamas in exchange for Shalit. The list replaces 70 other prisoners that were rejected by the Jewish state.

Hamas has said it plans to hold the prisoner exchange on Friday, the day of a Muslim feast.

Israeli President Shimon Peres said Sunday following a meeting in Cairo with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak that “real progress” has been made in negotiations to release Shalit.

Meanwhile, parents who lost children in terrorist attacks have asked Israel’s Supreme Court to require public debate on a prisoner exchange deal.

The bereaved parents and the Almagor terror victims organization petitioned the court Tuesday to require full disclosure of any deal to release Shalit, including the names of Palestinian terrorists to be released in a prisoner exchange.

Netanyahu said on Tuesday that no deal has been made for Shalit’s release.

“There is no conclusion, no decision and no deal,” Netanyahu said during a speech at National Police headquarters.

He added that any deal would be open to public scrutiny and a government vote.

JTA