Fox News reported Friday that a deal aimed at securing the release of captive Israel Defense Forces soldier Gilad Shalit was close to completion, and that it will likely be carried out next week.

Shalit was captured by Gaza militants in a cross-border raid in 2006 and has been held in captivity for over three years. Hamas, the rulers of the Gaza Strip, have demanded the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners jailed in Israel in exchange for Shalit's freedom, Haaretz reported.

Sources said Friday that talks aimed at advancing the deal would resume on Monday, when Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu returns from his trip to Germany and the Muslim holiday of Id al-Adha concludes.


According to Fox, Egyptian sources said that Hamas has yet to respond to Israel's latest objections, but that the latest developments indicate that the differences between the two sides have significantly narrowed.

A major sticking point, the report continued, is a disagreement over where Palestinian prisoners from East Jerusalem would be deported to once they are released in the exchange.

"What we are seeing now is the end game," Fox News quoted a source close to the negotiations as saying. Both sides, however, also expressed caution that a final agreement is very close, but has not yet been concluded.

Arab media on Thursday reported significant progress in the talks to free the soldier. Senior Hamas officials, namely the heads of Hamas' Damascus-based political bureau, did not say the talks have failed but that a number of clauses in the German mediator's proposal were problematic.

Senior Hamas officials said Thursday that the talks had hit a snag over some of the Palestinian prisoners the Islamic group wants freed, including Marwan Barghouti and Ahmad Sa'adat.

Israel also objects to freeing Israeli Arab prisoners as well as several Hamas military wing leaders. Another issue yet to be settled is Israel's demand to deport almost 100 of the 450 "heavy" prisoners set to be released in the deal.

The Arab media does not describe these issues as categorical demands, but as points to be sorted out with the help of the German mediator.

Hamas is demanding, among other the prisoners, the release of Ibrahim Hamad, head of the group's military wing in the Ramallah area, Abdallah Barghouti, a bomb engineer, and Abbas a-Sayad, the Hamas head in Tul Karm who planned the 2002 massacre during Passover in Netanya's Park Hotel. These three prisoners are considered responsible for the murder of hundreds of Israelis.

Other names mentioned in the Arab media are Hassan Salame, who was involved in planning the suicide bus bombings in the mid '90s, and Jamal Abu al-Hijla, head of Hamas in Jenin, who was convicted of taking part in planning and funding several suicide attacks during the second intifada.

Another key figure is senior Fatah leader Marwan Barghouti. Vice Premier Silvan Shalom said earlier this week that Barghouti and Sa'adat, secretary of the Popular Front, would not be freed as part of the Shalit exchange. Over the last two days, Hamas officials have said explicitly that Israel is refusing to release Barghouti.

The Obama administration has in recent weeks pressed Netanyahu to extend good-faith gestures to Abbas, intended to compensate for the predicted blow to Fatah's popularity in the wake of the prisoner exchange deal.

Netanyahu's declaration on Wednesday of a 10-month hiatus in settlement construction is not simply a tardy response to Washington's requests. The U.S. administration will try to present it as an achievement for Abbas as well, despite the Palestinian Authority's disappointment with East Jerusalem's exclusion from the building freeze.