Israel is expected to free nine Hamas lawmakers who have been arrested since the capture of an Israeli soldier in 2006, a local prisoner rights group said on Wednesday, Xinhua reported.
The nine members of the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) are based in the West Bank and they have completed their 40-month detention sentence, said Ahrar center for prisoners' studies and human rights.
Israel arrested more than 40 members of the Hamas-dominated PLC in the West Bank in 2006 in response to the kidnapping of Israeli Corporal Gilad Shalit by Hamas in a cross-border raid southeast Gaza Strip.
Twenty-five Hamas lawmakers would remain in custody while the nine legislators are freed, the center said in a statement sent to the media.
Meanwhile, Hamas said its demands for freeing Shalit have not been changed. Hamas wants Israel to release more than 1,000 Palestinian and Arab prisoners in exchange for Shalit.
A senior Hamas source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that the indirect talks to finalize the prisoners swap deal "is going on," adding "the deal would be finalized upon "what was declared on the first day of abducting Shalit."
The source refused to deny or confirm previous information saying that a prisoners swap deal "is expected before Moslems and Jewish holidays in late September."
However, the source said "the current talks are serious."
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