Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's special envoy Hagai Hadas is expected to visit Cairo soon to study the recent developments in the case of kidnapped Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, local news service Ynet reported Sunday.
Israel is preparing to resume the negotiations aimed at securing the release of Shalit, said the report, adding that Hadas, who was put in charge of the Shalit case only several weeks ago, is expected to present to the Egyptian mediators Israel's stand on resuming the talks.
At this stage, no official details on Hadas' expected visit to Cairo have been released, but a flurry of activity is being seen in both Israel and Egypt over the plan to resume the negotiations.
Meanwhile, Netanyahu's stand as to the conditions for resuming the talks has yet to be announced.
Senior Israeli officials have clarified, however, that the preparations for Hadas' visit do not point to an upcoming release of Shalit, who was abducted by Gazan gunmen in June 2006.
"We may make progress this week ahead of resuming the negotiations. One must not develop exaggerated expectations that Shalit will return home in the near future," one of the officials was quoted by Ynet as saying on Saturday night.
Osama al-Muzeini, a senior Gaza Hamas leader and spokesman for the prisoners swap file with Israel, said on Friday that media reports on progress made in the talks were false.
Egypt has long been trying to broker a swap deal between Israel and Hamas, which would see the Jewish state release hundreds of Palestinian prisoners in exchange for Shalit's return. Yet due to a notable gap between the two sides on the identities and number of those to be released, the effort has so far borne no fruit.
(Xinhua News Agency July 12, 2009)
